The Forest City football season ended on Friday night in Iowa Falls, but not before the Indians exploded on offense, scoring a season-high 41 points and beating Iowa Falls-Alden 41-12.
Sam Klaassen has been steady in the Indians’ backfield all year long. When the Indians needed to burn the clock, get short yardage first downs, or a spark on offense – they looked to the senior. Klaassen was a powerful bruiser who refused to lose a battle or go down, always fighting for extra yards. And after a stellar senior season, Klassen has cemented himself in Forest City glory, becoming just the second Indian back to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.
He’s the first to do it since Jon Nordaas ran for 1,109 yards in 1974, and reaching the milestone wasn’t a gimme for Klaassen; he had to rush for over 200 yards in both of the remaining two games. He ran for 204 at Okoboji in week eight and rushed for 220 against IFA in the season’s final week.
It was fitting Klaassen reached the milestone on his last two carries in a Forest City uniform, plunging to the 2-yard line, gaining 1000 yards, and then the next play into the endzone, reaching 1002 yards on the season and picking up his fifth touchdown of the game, again joining Nordaas as the only Indians to rush for five or more touchdowns in a game.
In three years as a varsity player, Klaassen amassed 1,382 yards on 267 carries and 21 touchdowns, his longest of 70 yards – again came in his final career game last Friday night.
As previously mentioned, the final rush of his career ended in a touchdown, giving him his 21st – passing Erling Brunsvold as second all-time on the career rushing touchdown list at Forest City, only behind – Nordaas, who ran for 30.
Klaassen plans to pursue a college football career but is undecided about where he will play next season.
