| Pirates
beat Genesee 42-36
The Prairie football team picked up their biggest win since dropping to 8-man football when they edged defending state champion Genesee 42-36 at Cottonwood Friday, Oct. 13. The win keeps the Pirates hopes of advancing to the state playoffs alive and clinches their first winning season since 1988 as they are now 5-2 with 2 games left. 1988 was also the last time a Prairie team qualified for the state playoffs. 
The game was a defensive struggle in the first half and an offensive showcase in the second half. Prairie took the opening kickoff and took just 5 plays to score the game’s first touchdown. The big play in the drive was a 40 yard run through a big hole on the left side of the Genesee defense by Danny Riener that set the Pirates up with a first and goal just inside the 10 yard line. Riener scored on the next play and added the 2-pointer for an 8-0 Prairie lead. The Pirates forced Genesee to punt on their first possession but couldn’t move the ball themselves as they came up short on a fourth down play. Two plays later Branden Waller forced a Genesee fumble with David Sigler recovering at the Prairie 45 but Prairie was again unable to gain a first down and was forced to punt. Genesee got 28 yards on a pass play and 2 plays later scored on another pass play to tie the game at 8 with 2:02 left in the first quarter.  Prairie
came right back with a 76 yard scoring drive featuring 17 straight running
plays. Riener and Ryan Daly shared the workload as Riener carried 11 times
for 44 yards and Daly 6 times for 27 yards. Riener wound up scoring the
touchdown on a fourth down play from inside the 1 yard line. The conversion
try was stopped short of the goal line giving Prairie a 14-8 lead.
The defense again forced Genesee to punt with J.D. Riener and Daniel Sigler combining on a quarterback sack that cost Genesee 10 yards. Neither team was able to move the ball the rest of the half. Genesee came out to start the second half and marched the ball downfield for the tying touchdown and took the lead by scoring the 2-point conversion. Things didn’t start well for the Pirates offensively either in the second half as they fumbled the ball away on their third play after the kickoff. The defense held Genesee though as Danny Riener, J.D. Riener and Ryan Daly combined to tackle Genesee quarterback Justin Udy for a 3 yard loss on a fourth and inches play. 
Prairie took over at their own 36. It looked like Genesee had them stopped when they sacked Kyle Holthaus for a 10 yard loss that left Prairie facing a third and 20. Prairie converted the first down though as Holthaus completed a pass to David Sigler that went for 30 yards to the Genesee 34. Prairie picked up another first down at the 24 and then Riener broke through for his third touchdown of the game. He went up the middle and broke loose from a tackle attempt about 5 yards downfield and went on to the end zone. The conversion try failed but Prairie was back on top 20-16. Genesee came right back though as they covered 69 yards in 5 plays to take back the lead at 20-22 as their conversion try also failed. The Genesee coach argued that the runner had hit the pylon but the referee maintained he had stepped out of bounds first. Prairie came right back with their own scoring drive. The Pirates took over at the Genesee 49 after a personal foul penalty was assessed on Genesee at the end of Sigler’s kickoff return. After 5 runs, Prairie had moved to the Genesee 32. On a third and 3, Riener burst through the middle of the line and outraced the defense to the end zone for his fourth touchdown. The conversion try again failed, leaving Prairie with a 26-22 lead with 27 seconds left in the third quarter. Genesee got a big kickoff return of 39 yards to put them near midfield. 4 plays later they had scored again and added the conversion try to retake the lead at 26-30 less than a minute into the fourth quarter. Prairie was able to move the ball down to the Genesee 31 on their next possession but Holthaus was hit as he was throwing the ball and his fourth down pass attempt fell short. The defense stepped up and forced the Bulldogs to punt. A bad snap led the punter to try to pass the ball and Danny Riener intercepted at the Genesee 26 and returned it to the 22. Ryan Daly went over the left side of the line for 17 yards to set up first and goal at the 5. After Riener was stopped for no gain, Daly went up the middle for the touchdown. Riener added the 2-pointer to make it 34-30 with 5:39 left to play. It didn’t take Genesee long to retake the lead as they returned the kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown. The conversion try failed leaving the score at 34-36. Prairie took over after the kickoff at their own 28. Two running plays netted just 2 yards. On third and 8 Kyle Holthaus went back to pass. He got a great block from Danny Riener that gave him the time to get the pass away. Jake Holthaus caught the ball at the Genesee 40 and raced downfield. He shook loose from a Genesee defender at about the 20 and went the rest of the way for a 70 yard touchdown play. Riener added the 2 point to put Prairie up 42-36 with 3:52 left. The question was, did Prairie score too quickly? Genesee took over at their own 35 after Ronnie Chandler kicked out of bounds. They moved up to the 50 on a pass play and 2 plays later Genesee’s Nick Wilson appeared headed for a first down. The ball was knocked loose though with Ryan Daly recovering the fumble at the Prairie 37 with 2:44 left on the clock. Prairie picked up 7 yards on a pair of running plays to set up a third and 3. Holthaus changed up the snap count and Genesee jumped offside giving the Pirates a first down. Two plays later a botched handoff led to what looked like a big loss but a personal foul penalty against Genesee gave Prairie another first down. At that point Holthaus was able to just step back and drop to a knee as Prairie ran out the clock. Riener wound up carrying the ball 35 times for 194 yards and 4 touchdowns. He also added three 2-point conversion runs. Daly added 95 yards on 20 carries with a touchdown. Prairie had 255 yards rushing on 63 attempts. Holthaus was sacked 3 times for big losses which dropped the rushing total some. Holthaus completed 4 of 10 passes for 126 yards. Sigler caught 3 passes for 56 yards and Jake Holthaus caught 1 pass for 70 yards and a touchdown. Prairie had 381 yards of offense in the game. Genesee picked up 184 yards rushing led by Shane Raffelson who had 76 yards on 12 carries. Udy added 71 yards on 14 carries. Udy completed 5 of 13 passes for 77 yards as the Bulldogs totaled 261 yards of offense. On defense Danny Riener had 7½ tackles while Corey Schaeffer had 7 tackles. Waller added 6 tackles including a forced fumble. Ryan Daly and David Sigler had 4 tackles and a fumble recovery each. J.D. Riener had 3½ tackles while Jake Holthaus had 2½ and Kyle Daly and Nate Kaschmitter had 2 each. Tyler Forsmann and Daniel Sigler added 1½ tackles each. With the win Prairie improves to 5-2 overall and 4-2 in league play. Kendrick and Troy are tied for first in the league with 1 loss each while Prairie, Genesee and Timberline each have 2 losses. If the Pirates win their final two games against Deary and Timberline they should sew up a state berth as they would have the tiebreaker advantage against Genesee should the Bulldogs also win out. Genesee 8 0 14 14 -36 Prairie 8 6 12 16 -42 P-Riener 10 run (Riener run) (10:16 1st) G-Carlson 9 pass from Udy (Udy run) (2:02 1st) P-Riener 1 run (run failed) (5:37 2nd) G-Udy 1 run (Wilson run) (10:25 3rd) P-Riener 24 run (run failed) (4:20 3rd) G-Udy 5 run (run failed) (3:23 3rd) P-Riener 32 run (run failed) (0:27 3rd) G-Raffelson 26 run (Udy run) (11:17 4th) P-R. Daly 5 run (Riener run) (5:39 4th) G-Parsons 78 kickoff return (pass failed) (5:26 4th) P-J. Holthaus 70 pass from K. Holthaus (Riener run) (3:52 4th) PIRATES BOYS FOOTBALL SCHEDULE FOR 2006 27-Timberline, here |
 |
