| Pirates
clinch league title
The Prairie football team clinched their first league title in many, many years when they beat Deary 36-14 at Cottonwood Friday, Oct. 24. 
As far as we can determine the last time a Prairie football team won a league title was also the last time they finished a season unbeaten, in 1969, their last year in the White Pine League before moving up to the Central Idaho League and playing 11-man football. To show that nothing changes, Deary was the Pirates’ toughest opponent in that season. For those that don’t remember the 1969 team, that was Harry Riener’s senior season. He went on to play for Boise State. In their previous state appearances, in 1980 and 1988 they were not league champs. In 1980 the CIL was a mixture of A-3 and A-2 teams. Grangeville, an A-2 team at the time, won the league title, but Prairie as the highest A-3 school in the standings was the league’s representative to state. In 1988 Prairie again finished second to Grangeville in the league and went as the #2 team from the CIL. Friday night’s game was the Pirates’ first to go the distance and of course the only time they’ve been held under 45 points. Deary appeared headed for the first score of the game as they stopped Prairie’s first possession, taking over at their own 36. They moved downfield with a mixture of runs and big play passes to a first and goal at the Prairie 10. Two runs their netted 0 yards and on third down Tyler Forsmann got into the backfield so fast he actually stole the handoff from Deary’s Luke Seubert. Prairie took over at their own 15 and put an impressive scoring drive together. The Pirates went 85 yards in 16 plays, 11 of them runs. They completed just 2 of 5 passes in the drive but both were for first downs to keep the drive going. Kyle Daly gained 37 yards on 7 carries in the drive while Branden Waller gained 26 yards on 4 carries including the final 6 for the touchdown. On the scoring play Waller dragged a couple of Deary defenders the final couple of yards as he reached for the goal-line. 
Daly caught a pass from Kyle Holthaus for the 2-pointer to make the score 8-0 early in the second quarter. Another turnover by Deary gave Prairie the ball back at the Mustang 30 as Conner Rieman recovered a fumble by Deary’s quarterback. On the next play Holthaus connected with David Sigler for a 23 yard pass that gave Prairie a first and goal at the 7. Waller then appeared to score on a run up the middle but the referees spotted the ball less than a foot from the goal line. Daly scored on the next play. The conversion try failed leaving Prairie with a 14-0 lead. Deary got their first score of the game on their next possession as Seubert went up the middle on second and 1 and broke into the clear. He wound up going 56 yards for the touchdown. Deary added the 2-pointer to cut the lead to 14-8. It was the first score all year against the first team defense for Prairie. Prairie answered right back though with another long scoring drive. Devin Schmidt’s 8 yard kickoff return set Prairie up at their own 25. Daly gained 11 yards on the first play and Waller went up the middle for 9 more. A screen pass to Waller was well-defended and resulted in a loss of a yard. Daly then ran a sweep to the right side and broke into the clear, gaining 28 yards before being caught by Seubert. On the next 3 plays Prairie missed on 2 passes and Daly was caught in the backfield for a loss, setting up a fourth and 14. Holthaus then completed a pass to Waller that gained 15 yards and kept the drive going. Two more running plays netted 7 yards setting up third and 3. Daly appeared to pick up the first down but a holding penalty set the Pirates back to the 19. The third down pass attempt came up short setting up fourth and 12. Holthaus passed to Sigler who made a great catch at the one. As he was tackled the ball was knocked loose and Waller recovered it in the end zone for touchdown. Daly added the 2-pointer to make it 22-8 with 1:05 left in the half. Prairie received the kickoff to start the second half with Sigler making a big return. He took the kickoff at the Prairie 22 and took the ball to the right side going 38 yards upfield before being tackled at the Deary 42. Prairie took just 8 plays to add another touchdown. Most of the yardage gained was on runs with a roughing the passer penalty setting up a first and goal at the 7. Branden Waller gained 6 yards up the middle on the next play and then went in from the 1 for the touchdown. The conversion try failed leaving Prairie with a 28-8 lead. The defense got the ball right back by forcing a punt. Seubert was hit in the backfield for a 6 yard loss on first down and after a 4-yard gain, Kyler Shumway sacked Deary’s quarterback after a long scramble for another 6 yard loss, forcing the punt. 
Prairie got 18 yards on the punt return when Sigler caught the ball at the Deary 48, headed left and then handed off to Waller who was headed the other way. After an intentional grounding penalty on the first play from scrimmage, Prairie stuck to the running attack and scored in 5 plays. Daly went right for 11 yards and then went left for 7 more to set up 4th and 1. Waller then went up the middle for 7 yards for the first down. Daly went right again for 7 yards and Waller went up the middle for 7 more to score the touchdown. Daly added the 2-pointer to give Prairie a 36-8 lead with 4:40 left in the third quarter. Deary answered back with a long drive as they mixed in passes and runs. It appeared that Prairie had them stopped at the Prairie 37 but a pass interference penalty gave the Mustangs a first down at the 29. Waller then caught Brandon Eggers in the backfield for a 6 yard loss but Seubert broke loose for a 31 yard run on the next play. Sigler made the touchdown saving tackle at the 4 yard line. On the next play Eggers never got control of the handoff and Sigler recovered the fumble at the 3. Prairie was able to move downfield as Daly and Waller each had a 10-yard run. A 29-yard pass to Sigler set Prairie up at the Mustang 30. A 12 yard run by Daly gave Prairie a first down at the 18 but there the drive stalled. Holthaus got sacked for a 12 yard loss on third down and Prairie’s 4th down pass came up short giving Deary the ball at the 23. Deary got a couple of big runs by Seubert and another from quarterback Derek Brown to move into Pirate territory at the 26. With only seconds remaining in the game, Deary tried 3 straight passes and completed the final one, on the game’s final play for a 26-yard touchdown. There was no conversion try as it wouldn’t have made any difference to the outcome. Daly wound up gaining 159 yards on 26 carries in the game and Waller added 82 yards on 15 carries. Holthaus completed 7 of 17 pass attempts for 106 yards with Sigler catching 4 for 75 yards and Waller 3 for 31. Seubert had 144 yards on 15 carries for Deary while Eggers was held to just 39 yards on 13 carries. Deary was 10 for 15 passing the ball for 124 yards. On defense Waller led the way with 10½ tackles. Schmidt and Mike Mattson had 6 tackles each. Rieman had 5½ tackles with ½ a sack and a fumble recovery. Sigler had 5½ tackles and a fumble recovery. Daly and Cody Miller had 4 tackles each. Forsmann had 3½ tackles, ½ a sack and a fumble recover. Shumway had 2 tackles plus a sack. With the win Prairie improves to 8-0 on the season and 7-0 in league. This Friday they end the regular season at Kendrick at 7 p.m. Their first state tournament game will be Friday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. at the Kibbie Dome against the third place team from the White Pine League. If Lapwai beats Genesee this Friday, their opponent would be Deary again. If Genesee beats Lapwai there will be a 3-way playoff next Monday, Nov. 3 between Troy, Deary and Genesee to determine who gets the 2nd and 3rd seeds from the league. Deary 0 8 0 6 -14 Prairie 0 22 14 0 -36 P-Waller 6 run (Daly pass from Holthaus) 8:15 2nd P-Daly 1 run (pass failed) 6:32 2nd D-Seubert 56 run (D. Eggers pass from Brown) 5:47 2nd P-Waller fumble recovery in end zone (Daly run) 1:05 2nd P-Waller 1 run (run failed) 9:08 3rd P-Waller 7 run (Daly run) 4:40 3rd D-Brower 26 pass from Brown (no attempt) 0:00 4th.
League champion decals available Whitepine League Champions football decals are available for purchase either by calling Loretta Riener at 962-5938 or stopping in at Harman Agency on Main Street. Part of the proceeds from the decal sale will go towards travel expenses for the football team. The decals may be purchased for $12. Go Prairie! Cottonwood Gun Club Night Shoot, week 3 Well it's now week three of the annual Night Shoot and it was a cold one at that. We had a great night of shooting with mild winds but clear skies which made for some white knuckles on the line. A new leader has climbed their way to the top this week with 593 birds, congratulations "Our Team" from Grangeville Gun Club. Very close behind is Harman Agency from Cottonwood Gun Club with a 591. Not too far behind is The Winchester Gun Club with a 586. Makes for a close race to the 6th week of competition. Congratulations to Lowell Mader from Harman Agency and Cliff Kinzer from Winchester Gun Club for a perfect 25. Keep it up guys. 5 of 14 earn medals The Cottonwood Wrestling Club started their season with a meet at Clarkston Saturday, Oct. 25 where 5 of the 14 wrestlers earned medals. Earning silver medals were Cole Creutzberg and Kellie Heitman. Earning bronze medals were Hayden Uhlenkott, Hunter McWilliams and Tayler Heitman. Also participating were Lane Remacle, Rafe Coates, Jared Nopens, Hunter Chaffee, Paul Sonnen, Devin Ross, Braden Nopens, Caleb McWilliams and Samantha Remacle.
PIRATES BOYS FOOTBALL SCHEDULE FOR 2008 12-C.V., here, won 60-14 19-Potlatch, there won 56-8 26-Timberline, here, Homecoming, won 50-0 10-Genesee, here, won 52-0 17-Troy, there, won 46-0, clinch state berth 24-Deary, here, won 36-14, clinch league title 31-Kendrick, there |
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