| Pirates
beat Oakley 32-22 to win state title
The Prairie Pirates shut out Oakley in the second half as they pulled out a 32-22 win in the 1-A, Division 1 State Championship game Friday, November 21 at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow. 
The game started out looking like it was going to be a typical 8-man 52-50 type game where the last team with the ball winds up winning it. Prairie took a short opening kickoff and started at their own 43. 7 straight running plays later with Kyle Daly carrying on 6 of them, Prairie was in the end zone with Daly picking up the final 20 yards on a run over the right side. Kyle Holthaus passed to David Sigler for the 2-pointer to make it 8-0. Prairie had to kick off twice as they were called for being offside on the first try but Ronnie Chandler still kicked the ball down to the 10 yard line. Oakley’s return man had trouble handling the kick but was able to move out to the 25. Oakley marched down the field covering 75 yards in 10 plays, two of them passes for 43 total yards. Payson Bedke went in from the 5 for the touchdown. Oakley tried to pass for the 2-pointer but the play failed leaving Prairie with an 8-6 lead. That missed 2-pointer turned out to be a big play. Prairie came right back with Sigler returning the kickoff 10 yards to the 25. Prairie threw a couple of new wrinkles into this second drive. After a 14 yard run by Daly, Prairie unveiled a misdirection quarterback keeper. With the defense keying on Daly who took a fake handoff to the left, Holthaus kept the ball and rolled around a wide open right side for 54 yards to the Oakley 6 yard line. Daly was stuffed on the next two plays with him getting tackled for an 8 yard loss on second down. Facing third and goal from the 14, Holthaus threw his first pass of the game, hitting Sigler at the 5. Sigler went up and caught the ball and was undercut by the defender. After he hit the ground the ball came out but the referees determined he had the ball long enough for a catch. Sigler got up limping after the play. On fourth and goal, Prairie pulled out another play they hadn’t run in a game all season as Holthaus went back to pass again then flipped a shovel pass forward to Daly who took the ball toward the left pylon for the touchdown. Holthaus passed to Rieman for the 2-pointer to make it 16-6 with 1:24 left in the first quarter.  Oakley
came right back with a 40 yard kickoff return by Rhyan Greenwell that set
them up at their own 44.
Four plays later quarterback Mark Pickett rolled out to the left and found Colten Wadsworth wide open back on the right side for a 30 yard touchdown play. Brian Babbitt ran in the 2-pointer to cut Prairie’s lead to 16-14. Oakley’s kickoff went out of bounds at the 39 and 3 plays later apparent disaster struck. Holthaus’ pass to Rieman was intercepted but Oakley was called for pass interference on the play giving Prairie a first down at the Oakley 40. A false start penalty and two plays that netted 6 yards in losses left Prairie facing a third and 21 at their own 49. Holthaus passed to Branden Waller who made a great 1-handed snag of the ball and gained 14 yards. Holthaus then connected with Rieman on the left side for 8 yards and the first down, the second time Prairie had converted on 4th down in the game, but not the last. A 7-yard gain by Daly was followed by a 14 yard burst through the middle by Devin Schmidt that gave Prairie first and goal at the 9. Daly gained 5 over the right side and Schmidt nearly scored on a run up the middle. Holthaus then scored on a quarterback sneak from the 1. On the 2-point play, Oakley rushed from the right side forcing Holthaus to roll out to the left. He and Rieman made eye contact and Rieman juked away from his defender right to where Holthaus passed the ball to make it 24-14 with 5:52 left in the half. The defenses finally stopped the offenses on the next series as Kyler Shumway burst through and tackled Pickett for no gain on a third and 4 play forcing Oakley to punt. The punt went only 22 yards with Prairie taking over at their own 39. Daly gained 12 yards on the first play but the next 3 plays netted just 2 yards and Prairie had to punt back to Oakley. Sigler rolled out to the right and punted on the run down to the Oakley 4 yard line. Bedke returned the punt 16 yards to the 20. Deep in their own end with just under 2 minutes left in the half, picked up a first down running the ball out to the 37. They then went to the pass on 4 straight plays. The first two were incomplete but then Pickett connected with Wadsworth for 25 yards. He connected again with Wadsworth for 27 yards to the Prairie 11. On the next play Pickett scrambled away for the pass rush and connected with Hunter Wadsworth who made a great catch laying out in the end zone and just getting the feet down before going out of bounds but the play was called back as Oakley had a lineman downfield before the pass. Pickett though scored on the next play as he faked a handoff to the left to Babbitt and ran a bootleg to the right, just catching the pylon with the ball as time ran out in the half. Babbitt ran in the 2-pointer to cut the lead to 24-22. 
It appeared Oakley had the momentum on their side as they had scored to end the half and were to receive the kickoff to start the second half. After the kickoff return they started on their own 22 and Babbitt followed with his biggest gain of the night as he went up the middle for a 31 yard gain to the Prairie 47. Colten Wadsworth carried on the next two plays and fell down at the line for no gain then was tackled in the backfield by Daly for a 4 yard loss. Sigler then broke up the third down pass attempt and Oakley was forced to punt. The punt went out of bounds at the Prairie 15. Two runs up the middle by Waller, who like Sigler was also limping by this time, gained just 3 yards. Oakley was called for being offsides to set up a third and 2 play. Daly converted with a 6 yard run around left end. On the next play Prairie broke out the option. Holthaus took the snap and headed right on an apparent quarterback run then pitched back to Schmidt who took the ball and put on a burst of speed to get around the corner and sprinted down the sidelines for a 60 yard gain to the Oakley 11 where he was pushed out of bounds. Prairie then started going backwards. Daly was stopped for a 6 yard loss and a pass completion to Rieman was called back on a holding penalty that resulted in a 15 yard loss as the call was made 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Holthaus was sacked for a 9 yard loss on second down leaving Prairie with a third and 40. Oakley was then called for encroachment which made it “only” third and 35. Prairie showed great patience, realizing they had 2 plays to pick up the yardage. Holthaus passed to Sigler on the right side for a 19 yard gain. On fourth down Holthaus passed again to Sigler in the back of the end zone. Sigler went up over double coverage to catch the ball and managed to get his heels down in the end zone before falling backward over the end line. Daly appeared to run in the important 2-point conversion that would mean Oakley would need two scores to catch the Pirates but holding was called and Prairie had to try again from the 12. The 2-pointer was almost a repeat of the touchdown as Sigler made another great catch against good coverage in the back of the end zone. This one was more toward the sideline while the touchdown was in the center of the end zone. That gave Prairie a 32-22 lead with 5:32 left in the third quarter. Oakley then took over at their own 28. Waller stuffed Babbitt for a 1 yard loss on first down and 2 pass plays netted just 3 yards as Oakley was forced to punt. Prairie took over on their own 26 and a 1 yard run followed by a 5-yard penalty left them with second and 14. Daly gained 13 yards over the right side then 12 yards around left end for a first down at the 47. A 7 yard gain by Daly and a 6 yard run by Schmidt netted another first down. Daly then picked up 15 yards to move the ball down to the Oakley 25. At that point Prairie’s drive stalled out as a fourth and 5 shovel pass from Holthaus to Daly gained just 4 yards, giving Oakley the ball at the 16. Mixing run and pass with most of the yardage gained by the pass, Oakley moved down to the Prairie 10 where a holding penalty on third and 1 pushed them back to the 19. With third and 10, Oakley gained 8 yards on a pass. On fourth down Pickett fumbled the snap and recovered but before he could do anything with the ball, Shumway had sacked him for a 4 yard loss, giving Prairie the ball on downs. Prairie managed a first down but were then forced to punt the ball away. With the clock down under 4 minutes Oakley went to the pass on 4 of 5 plays, moving down to the 33. At that point, Prairie’s limping stars combined to make the game clinching play. Pickett went back to pass and Waller put on a great pass rush, forcing Pickett to throw the ball a little earlier than he would’ve liked and also with a higher arc. With the higher arcing pass, Sigler was able to get in front of the receiver and make the interception that clinched the game with just over a minute to play. Two runs by Daly were followed by a kneeldown by Holthaus to run out the clock. Daly carried the ball 32 times in the game for 154 yards. Schmidt added 81 yards on 6 carries and Holthaus 49 yards on 5 carries. Prairie totaled 284 yards rushing on 48 attempts. Holthaus was a perfect 8 for 8 passing for 72 yards. Sigler caught 4 passes for 41 yards, Daly 2 for 9 yards, Waller 1 for 14 and Rieman 1 for 8. Prairie had 356 total yards to 358 for Oakley. Babbitt had 105 yards on 17 carries for Oakley while Pickett added 38 yards on 7 carries. Pickett completed 12 of 19 passes with one interception for 207 yards. Colten Wadsworth caught 6 for 112 yards, Weston Cooper 3 for 69 yards and Hunter Wadsworth 3 for 26. Prairie exhibited a great bend but don’t break defense in the second half. They gave up yardage but came up with the big plays when they needed them. Helpful to the defense was the 10-point lead. Oakley pretty much abandoned their running game once they needed two scores to catch the Pirates as they gained just 54 of their 151 rushing yards in the second half and only 27 of those after Prairie had taken the final 10 point lead. Schmidt had 8½ tackles to lead the defense with Daly adding 8 tackles. Sigler had 7 tackles plus an interception. Waller had 6½ tackles. Rieman had 4½ tackles and Tyler Forsmann had 4 tackles. Shumway had 2 tackles plus a sack. Tyrell Langston and Derek Schaeffer had 2 tackles each. Prairie completes a perfect 12-0 season and joins the 1976-77 girls basketball team as Prairie’s only undefeated state champions. Prairie 16 8 8 0 -32 Oakley 6 16 0 0 -22 P-Daly 20 run (Sigler pass from Holthaus) 9:40 1st O-Bedke 5 run (pass failed) 4:50 1st P-Daly 5 pass from Holthaus (Rieman pass from Holthaus) 1:24 1st O-C. Wadsworth 30 pass from Pickett (Babbitt run) 11:53 2nd P-Holthaus 1 run (Rieman pass from Holthaus) 5:52 2nd O-Pickett 16 run (Babbitt run) 0:00 2nd P-Sigler 16 pass from Holthaus (Sigler pass from Holthaus) 5:32 3rd
 Public invited to football team banquet The State Champion Prairie Football team will be holding their awards banquet Sunday, Dec. 7 at 6 p.m. and is inviting the public to attend. If you plan to attend, please contact Prairie High School by Dec. 3. The banquet will be at the high school unless there is enough interest to warrant moving to the Community Hall. Pirates named to all-league team Kyle Daly and Branden Waller were named co-offensive and co-defensive players of the year respectively for the White Pine League All-League football team. Daly shared honors with Beau Dahmen of Genesee while Waller shared honors with T.J. Yockey of Troy. Luke Seubert of Deary was named WPL Player of the Year. Daly was also named as a first team running back while David Sigler was named first team wide receiver and Ronnie Chandler and Kyler Shumway were named first team offensive linemen. Sigler was also named a first team defensive back with Waller a first team linebacker and Shumway and Tyler Forsmann first team defensive linemen. Earning second team honors were Kyle Holthaus at quarterback, Waller at running back and Daly at linebacker. Earning honorable mentions were Devin Schmidt at linebacker and Conner Rieman on the defensive line. Order your state champion decal The Prairie Booster Club is taking special orders for the State Champions football decals. If you would like an athlete's or coach's name and/or number placed on the decal, please call Loretta Riener at 962-5938 or e-mail the information to riener@mtida.net. We also have a few of the Whitepine League Champions football decals available for $12 as well as stadium blankets for $20 at Harman Agency. The blankets are red fleece with laser etched Prairie Pirates. They would make great Christmas presents for any Prairie student or fan. They can be used to keep warm at a baseball and softball game or track meet and they can be used on the car or bus ride to any extracurricular activity or even just sitting around at home. 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, won 70-24, finish regular season at 9-0 14-2nd round State Tournament vs. Deary, won 22-0 21-State Championship game vs. Oakley, won 32-22 - FINISH AT 12-0 - STATE CHAMPS!!!! |
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