| Pirates
win state opener
The Prairie football team opened the state playoffs with a 40-22 win over Raft River of Malta Friday, Nov. 2 at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow. Prairie received the opening kickoff and mixing pass and runs drove the ball 85 yards in 12 plays to score the game’s first touchdown. 
Spencer Schumacher was back at quarterback for the first time since leaving the second half of the Lapwai game with an injured knee. He misfired on his first two passes but later connected for 15 yards each to Derik Shears and Damian Forsmann in the drive. Michael Schwartz had 6 carries in the drive for 39 yards including the final 3 yards for the touchdown. On the 2-point try it looked like Schumacher could’ve run it in for the points but, not trusting his knee yet, chose to pass and the try failed. On Raft River’s first possession, the first of six sacks in the game led to a Raft River punt. On second and 11 linebackers Owen Anderson and Caleb Schumacher blitzed and sacked quarterback Keegan Chatburn for a 6 yard loss. Raft River’s punt wound up bouncing back about 10 yards to Prairie’s benefit before going out of bounds at the Prairie 40. Prairie converted a fourth and 3 on a 12 yard run by Cole Martin to the Raft River 41. However, Schumacher tossed a pass deep downfield that was batted up and then intercepted by Raft River’s Cutler Erickson at the 12 yard line. On third and 10, Dean Johnson pushed his way through the middle for a sack of Chatburn at the 3. The punt snap went over Erickson’s head and out of the end zone for a safety to make it 8-0 for the Pirates. After the free kick, Prairie took over at the Raft River 48. On the second play following, Prairie fumbled the ball over to Raft River with Erickson recovering at the Raft River 36. The Trojans faced a fourth and 1 at their own 45 when they induced Prairie to jump offsides, giving them a first down. They also got Prairie to jump offsides again on the next snap. Chatburn then completed his first downfield pass for 17 yards to Rylee Spencer and on the next play Erickson ran a sweep to the right for 26 yards to set up first and goal at the 2. Chatburn scored on the next play and then added the 2-pointer to tie the game at 8-8 early in the second quarter. Prairie took over after the kickoff at their own 25 and proceeded to break the tie with a 14 play, 75 yard drive. Prairie picked up first downs on an 8 yard pass from Schumacher to Shears and a 10 yard pass from Schumacher Schwartz at the Raft River 44. From that point on, Prairie stayed with the run. Schwartz picked up 7 followed by 5 yards from McWilliams. 6 by Schwartz, 2 by McWilliams and 5 more by Schwartz moved the ball to the 19. A facemask penalty on Schwartz’ 5 yard run moved the ball to the 14. Schumacher gained 8 yards on a keeper. McWilliams made it first and goal at the 1 with a 5 yard run and Schumacher pushed the ball over on a sneak on the next play. Schumacher then looked to pass but wound up running it in for the 2-pointer to make it 16-8. On Raft River’s ensuing possession Prairie blitzed Chatburn twice, dropping him for losses of 10 and 15 yards to set up a fourth and 35 from the 20. Erickson’s punt traveled 56 yards and Prairie wound up taking over at their own 19. Prairie kept mostly to the ground game to move the ball 81 yards in 14 plays for another touchdown. Cole Martin had runs of 12, 8 and 10 yards in the drive. Anderson picked up 21 yards on 1 run. Schumacher had gains of 9 and 2 yards to set up first and goal at the 9. Prairie got pushed back a yard and faced a fourth and goal from the 10. Schumacher passed to Damian Forsmann for 10 yards and the touchdown and then passed to Anderson for the 2-pointer to make it 24-8 with 1:14 left in the first half. Raft River picked up a first down as they looked to score before halftime but the half ended when Johnson sacked Chatburn for a 15 yard loss. Raft River came out fired up in the second half and marched down the field covering 65 yards in 5 plays to score a touchdown and cut the lead to 24-14. The ensuing kickoff then rolled down to the 1 yard line where Shears picked it up and got back to the 4. He had been hoping it would roll into the end zone for a touchback but when it didn’t he had to pick it up to keep Raft River from recovering. 96 yards away from a score, the Pirates proceeded to cut the heart out of the Trojans by taking the ball the length of the field in 16 plays, overcoming 2 holding penalties along the way.  A
12 yard slant to Forsmann got Prairie past the 10 yard line to the 16.
Schwartz then picked up a big gain but a holding penalty at the 20 moved
the ball back to the 10.
An 8 yard pass to Shears and a 9 yard pass to Forsmann gave Prairie a first down at the 27. 3 runs netted 22 yards and 2 more first downs. Prairie faced a third and 4 at the Raft River 45 with Schwartz gaining 7 for another first down. Schwartz gained 7 and Martin 5 for another first down at the 26. Another holding penalty set Prairie back to the 39. Schumacher connected for 13 yards over the middle to Shears and on the next play hit Shears over the middle at the 2 yard line with Shears sidestepping a defender to score on a 26 yard play. Forsmann then made a leaping catch in the back of the end zone for the 2-pointer that had us flashing back to a similar play by David Sigler in Prairie’s first state championship win. That made it 32-14. Raft River was forced to punt and Schwartz returned a low line-drive punt 22 yards to the Raft River 43. Schumacher picked up 5 yards on a keeper then tossed a screen pass to the right side to Anderson who took the ball down to the 1 yard line. McWilliams went in for a touchdown on the next play. Schumacher ran in the 2-pointer to make it 40-14 with 1:09 left in the third quarter. Another sack of Chatburn for a 10 yards loss by Anderson forced Raft River to punt again. The punt went straight up in the air and only traveled 10 yards as Prairie took over at the Trojan 42. A 15 yard completion from Schumacher to Dylan Schumacher moved the ball to the 31 but the drive stalled as Schwartz was stopped 1 yard short of a first down at the 22. Raft River was forced to punt again and Prairie took over at their own 45. A bad snap led to a 22 yard loss. A pass interference penalty gave Prairie 15 of those yards back and the Pirates picked up 31 for a first down on a screen pass to Anderson. The drive stalled at the 39 with a couple of incomplete passes and Raft River took over. The Trojans were able to score another touchdown with Prairie substituting second string and JV defenders into the game to cut the final margin to 40-22. Prairie took over at their own 35 after an out of bounds kickoff and proceeded to run out the rest of the clock. Prairie had 224 yards rushing and 225 yards passing in the game. Schwartz led the rushing attack with 91 yards on 22 carries. Martin added 58 yards on 9 carries and McWilliams had 49 on 10 carries. Schumacher was 16 for 28 passing with 1 interception for 225 yards. Shears caught 7 passes for 85 yards. Forsmann caught 4 for 46. Anderson caught 3 for 69. Dylan Schumacher caught 1 for 15 yards and Schwartz caught 1 for 10 yards. Raft River gained 60 yards rushing and 122 passing. Erickson had 59 yards rushing on 10 carries. Chatburn was 9 for 14 passing for 122 yards with Spencer catching 5 for 65. Johnson led the defense with 5.5 tackles including 4.5 sacks. Anderson had 5.5 tackles and a sack. Sam Mager and Dylan Schumacher each had 5 tackles. Schwartz had 4.5 tackles. McWilliams had 2 tackles and ½ a sack. John Gehring had 2 tackles. Hayden Uhlenkott had 1.5 tackles. Carson Schmidt had 1 tackle and it was a sack. Shears, Forsmann, Dalton Ross and Cole Schlader each had 1 tackle. Prairie is now 9-1 on the season and will play Oakley in the semifinals this Friday, Nov. 9 at 5:30 p.m. MST at Holt Arena in Pocatello. Prairie 8 16 16 0 -40 Raft River 0 8 6 8 -22 P-Schwartz 3 run (pass failed) 8:29 1st P-Safety, snap went out of the end zone 2:31 1st RR-Chatburn 2 run (Chatburn run) 11:03 2nd P-S. Schumacher 1 run (S. Schumacher run) 6:49 2nd P-Forsmann 10 pass from S. Schumacher (Anderson pass from S. Schumacher) 1:14 2nd RR-Erickson 26 run (run failed) 9:27 3rd P-Shears 26 pass from S. Schumacher (Forsmann pass from S. Schumacher) 3:54 3rd P-McWilliams 1 run (S. Schumacher run) 1:09 3rd RR-Schuman 25 pass from Chatburn (Schuman pass from Chatburn) 1:21 4th
PIRATES BOYS FOOTBALL SCHEDULE FOR 2018 7-Troy*, here, 7:30 p.m., won 88-6 14-Salmon River, there, 6 p.m., won 54-6 21-Genesee*, here, Homecoming, won 78-0 29-Potlatch*, there, 12 noon, won 62-0 12-Kamiah*, here, won 62-0 19-C.V.*, there, won 54-8 27-Wallace* there, 2 p.m., won by 2-0 forfeit 9-State Semifinals vs. Oakley at Holt Arena, Pocatello, 5:30 p.m. MST. 16 or 17-State Championship *League Game PRAIRIE JUNIOR HIGH BOYS BASKETBALL NOVEMBER 13-Grangeville, here 15-Orofino, here 20-Kamiah, there 27-Orofino, there 29-Grangeville, here 6-Grangeville, there 11-Kamiah, here 18-Kamiah, here |
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