| Pirates
win league title
The Prairie football team won their second straight White Pine League Division 1 championship and their fourth in 8 years as they won 42-26 at Kamiah Friday, Oct. 23. And the did it by flipping the script as they gained more yardage rushing than passing for the first time all season and were also outgained through the air by their opponent for the first time all season. 
Prairie took the opening kickoff and started at their own 17. They put together a long grinding drive with 6 passes and 12 runs. A 19 yard pass play from Jake Bruner to Isaiah Shears gave them first and goal at the 7 yard line. A 3 yard gain by Terran Peery was followed by a false start penalty that set them back to the 9. On the next play Peery took the ball round right end and into the end zone but a holding penalty called back the touchdown. Prairie wound up turning the ball over on downs back at the 27 as the Kubs defense, inspired by the TD being negated, stopped Prairie for losses on the next 3 plays. Kamiah moved out to their own 47 and then Taylor McAlister broke containment around the right side and sprinted 53 yards to the end zone for the game’s first score. Parker Whipple ran in the 2-pointer to give Kamiah a 0-8 lead. It was only the second time Prairie had been behind all season. Prairie came right back as Shears had a 26 yard kickoff return that set Prairie up at their own 43. Bruner connected with Peery for a big gain that added a few more yards when he fumbled at the end of it and Devin Bruegeman was able to recover for the Pirates for a 21 yard net gain. An 8 yard run each by Calvin Hinkelman and Peery moved the ball to the Kamiah 20. On the next play Peery burst through the middle for 20 yards and a touchdown that stood this time. A bad snap on the 2-point try left Prairie trailing 6-8. Kamiah threatened to score again as McAlister had another big run, gaining 35 yards that put the Kubs at the Prairie 15. The defense stiffened and stopped the Kubs a yard short of a first and goal on fourth and 4 as Prairie took over at their own 6. Prairie was able to moved out to midfield before their drive stalled and they faced fourth and 7. With Bruner back to punt, Kamiah didn’t send anyone deep to receive as they were worried Bruner might try to throw or run for a first down instead. The ball rolled dead at the Kamiah 21. Shears picked up 2 sacks of Whipple on the next 3 plays to force Kamiah to punt from their own 12. Chris Pethel’s punt was shanked and went out of bounds at the Kamiah 29 giving Prairie great field position. Bruner connected with Bruegeman for 21 yards on a pass and on the next play Peery went over the left side for an 8 yard touchdown, his second of the game. Brandon Anderson ran in the 2-pointer as Priarie took a 14-8 lead with 8:43 left in the half.  The
two teams traded punts with Kamiah taking over after Bruner’s punt on their
own 17.
McAlister gained 7 yards on a run and then got behind the defense on the next play and caught a pass from Whipple that he took 76 yards for another touchdown to tie the game. Luke Wemhoff made the 2-point saving tackle to keep the score tied. Kamiah’s kickoff went out of bounds and Prairie took over at their own 35. Wemhoff picked up 13 yards on a running play around right end. The next two plays netted just 1 yard setting up a third and 9. Kamiah jumped offside to make it third and 4 from the Kamiah 46. Bruner then threw a short little slant pass to Bruegeman designed to pick up the first down and when the defender slipped off of Bruegeman he was able to take it the distance for a 46 yard scoring play that put Prairie back on top. Bruner passed to Shears for the 2-pointer to make it 22-14 with 3:55 left in the half. Kamiah came right back and burned Prairie’s secondary again on a long pass play, this one for 62 yards from Whipple to Garrison Bretz. Prairie stopped the 2-point try to hang onto the lead at 22-20 with 2:53 left in the half. Anderson picked up 20 yards on the kickoff return to set Prairie up at their 35. In hurry-up offense mode, Bruner picked up 20 yards on a keeper. On the next play he found Shears open deep down the right side for a 31 yard gain to the Kamiah 14. Hinkelman took a pitch around left end for 12 to set up first and goal at the 2. Bruner was stopped for no gain on a sneak but on the next play he handed off to Hinkelman who bulled his way through the middle and into the end zone. The 2-point pass attempt failed leaving Prairie with a 28-20 lead with 54 seconds left in the half. Kamiah was able to get as far as the Prairie 45 before the half ran out. Kamiah received the second half kickoff and Anderson made 2 tackles for loss on consecutive plays to force Kamiah to punt. He tackled McAlister for a 2 yard loss then sacked Whipple for a 7 yard loss. Prairie took over at their own 28 after the punt and moved the ball down to the Kamiah 32 before Bruner underthrew a pass intended for Peery that was intercepted by McAlister. Kamiah took over at their own 30 and a 51 yard pass play over the middle to Carson Beckman put the Kubs deep into Pirate territory and they eventually scored on a 2 yard run by McAlister to again pull within 2 points at 28-26 as Bruner tackled Whipple just short of the goal line on the 2-point try. A holding play on the kickoff return set Prairie back to their own 12. Hinkelman picked up 8 yards on third and 3 to get the first down out to the 27. On the next play Bruner ran a keeper around the left side for 32 yards. Bruner then converted a third and 5 with an 8 yard pass to Hinkelman to move to the 28. On third and 7 from the 25, Bruner ran another keeper around left end and went 25 yards for the touchdown to put Prairie up 34-26 as the 2-point try came up short. Kamiah came right back with McAlister gaining 32 yards on a pass play to move to the Prairie 30. Kamiah had a first down at the 15 when the Prairie defense made a huge stand. An illegal motion play set Kamiah back 5 yards. McAlister was stopped for a loss of 1 on the next play. A pass rush by Shears forced an incompletion by Whipple. A reverse play netted just 2 yards as Brandon Higgins made the stopped. Finally Bruner batted away a fourth down pass attempt as Prairie took over on downs at their own 19. 
Bruner looked to pass on a rollout to the left on first down but wound up picking up 21 yards on a run. Peery got Prairie into Kamiah territory with a 12 yard run. Bruner pass to Hinkelman for 16 yards to move the ball to the Kamiah 32. From there it was ground and pound as Prairie ran 8 straight running plays. The big play was a fourth and inches at the 9 where Bruner refused to go down as he pushed the pile for 2 yards to set up first and goal at the 7. On the next play he ran it in to put Prairie up by 2 touchdowns. Bruner passed to Hinkelman for the 2 pointer to make it a 16 point margin at 42-26 with 6:51 left to play. Most of Bobby Hood’s kickoffs to this point had been squib kicks to keep the ball out of the hands of Kamiah’s burners. This time he kicked it deep and the ball rolled into the end zone for a touchback giving Kamiah 80 yards to go to get back into the game. Kamiah picked up 3 straight first downs to moved into Prairie territory at the 45. The defense rose up again and Anderson and Bruner combined to stop Whipple for just a 2 yard gain on fourth and 4 as Prairie took over at their own 37. Prairie looked to run the ball and take time off the clock but a bad exchange from the center to the quarterback led to Kamiah recovering a fumble at the 50. Whipple gained 14 yards on a scramble on fourth and 13 to pick up a first down. On the next play a holding penalty negated a pass play. The defense then chased Whipple out of bounds for a 12 yard loss that also had a holding penalty that was declined by the Pirates. Shears sacked Whipple again for a 9 yard loss on the next play and on fourth and forever, Bruegeman intercepted Whipple’s pass to clinch the game. With just over a minute to go, Prairie was able to run out the clock as Bruner took the snap and dropped to a knee on consecutive plays. Bruner wound up with 170 yards rushing on 20 attempts and completed 15 of 27 passes for 217 yards with 1 interception. Peery also gained over 100 yards rushing with 103 yards on 21 carries. Hinkelman added 33 on 9 carries and Wemhoff 14 on 2 carries as Prairie had 319 yards rushing. Bruegeman caught 4 passes for 85 yards, Shears 4 for 63, Peery 4 for 20 and Hinkelman 3 for 39. Kamiah had 158 yards rushing on 43 attempts and Whipple was 10 for 17 for 267 yards with 1 interception. McAlister provided most of their offense with 127 yards rushing on 17 carries and 132 yards receiving coming on 3 catches with 11 of those yards after taking a lateral on a hook and ladder play. Bruner led the defense with 10½ tackles. Peery had 9 tackles and a sack. Shears had 7½ tackles and 4 sacks. Hinkelman had 7½ tackles and 2½ sacks. Wemhoff had 7½ tackles and ½ a sack. Anderson had 3 tackles and a sack. Hood had 2½ tackles. Higgins had 2 tackles. Philip Spencer and Daniel Mager had 1 tackles each and Bruegeman had ½ a tackle and an interception. Prairie improves to 8-0 on the season and 6-0 in league with their 20th straight win, second only to the 23 game win streak of the 2008-09 Pirates. They open the state playoffs with a game against Wallace at Cottonwood Friday, Oct. 30 at 6 p.m. Prairie 6 22 6 8 -42 Kamiah 8 12 6 0 -26 K-McAlister 53 run (Whipple run) 4:08 1st P-Peery 20 run (run failed) 2:58 1st P-Peery 8 run (Anderson run) 8:43 2nd K-McAlister 76 pass from Whipple (pass failed) 4:52 2nd P-Bruegeman 46 pass from Bruner (Shears pass from Bruner) 3:55 2nd K-Bretz 62 pass from Whipple (run failed) 2:53 2nd P-Hinkelman 2 run (pass failed) 0:54.2 2nd K-McAlister 2 run (run failed) 5:51 3rd P-Bruner 25 run (run failed) 2:30 3rd P-Bruner 7 run (Hinkelman pass from Bruner) 6:51 4th
2015 PHS FOOTBALL September 11-Salmon River, here, 6 p.m., won 58-24 18-Council, here, 6 p.m., Homecoming, won 64-24 25-C.V., there, 7 p.m.*, won 68-0 9-Troy, there, 7 p.m.*, won 74-12 16-Potlatch, here, 7 p.m.*, won 86-6 23-Kamiah, there, 7 p.m.*, won 42-26 30-State Playoffs vs. Wallace, 6 p.m. at Cottonwood Nov. 6-State Playoffs, higher seed host, TBA Nov. 13-State Playoffs, higher seed host, TBA Nov. 20-State Championship, TBA *league game |
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