The Iowa Barnstormers defeated the Cedar Rapids Titans 46-23 on Sunday to earn their first home win since 2016.
The last time the team won at Wells Fargo Arena, Iowa defeated a bad Green Bay Blizzard team on Feb. 26, 2016.
Iowa Barnstormers Earn First Home Win Since 2016
“It felt awesome to get back here first of all, four road games is tough,” receiver Lucas Hefty said. “To come back here and get a win right away is awesome for our fans.”
Hefty finished the game with a team-leading eight catches good for 64 yards.
“Getting back and getting involved in the offense is awesome,” Hefty said. “If I’m getting a lot of catches one game then that means the other guys are running great decoys.”
The Barnstormers earned their 23-point win Sunday after coming off a 70-13 loss to the Sioux Falls Storm the week before.
“To go and get beat like that, [and] then to win like we did [tonight] shows something about our team,” Hefty said.
The win was not only Iowa’s first ever regular season win against Cedar Rapids. It was also Travis Partridge’s first home win as a Barnstormer.
“It’s a lot better signing autographs for a win than a loss, that’s for sure,” Partridge said. “We played well tonight, defense played well. It was kind of one of those games where there wasn’t a lot of big plays offensively, but that was kind of how they were playing it, so we took what they gave us.”
One of the, “Biggest,” offensive plays, or in this case moments, was after receiver Brady Roland caught his lone touchdown of the day.
Respect to Brady Roland
Roland caught the ball and immediately ran over to the stands next to the Barnstormers’ bench. He pointed in the stands to Tyler Wells – a former Barnstormer and also a teammate of Roland’s at Grand View – and gave him the ball.
Wells’ father passed away earlier this season and was a big part of the team.
“It was cool,” Roland said. “His dad was a big part of his organization here and at Grand View. It was cool to be able to do that for him.”
The Barnstormers will head into a bye week. Their next game will be at the Wells Fargo Arena on April 8 against the Green Bay Blizzard.
