| Pirates
lose at Lewis County
For the first time in many years the Prairie football team was the visitor on the Nezperce field and the new Lewis County Eagles team came away with an 8-56 win over the Pirates. 
Due to injuries and defections the Pirates had just 10 players eligible for the game and 2 of those were recently recruited to the team. Eric Lerandeau and C.J. Rieman stepped into the starting lineup as new recruits and Ben Forsmann might have except he didn’t have enough practices yet. He’ll be eligible for this week’s game against Genesee. Things didn’t start well for the Pirates as Lewis County scored on each of their first two plays from scrimmage to take a 0-14 lead less than 3 minutes into the game. Lewis County built their lead to 0-28 by halftime as their second unit got most of the playing time the rest of the half. Three interceptions didn’t help the Pirates cause as two of them led to touchdowns. Lewis County scored again right after half to take a 0-36 lead. Prairie then put together their best drive of the game. They picked up a first down as they moved into Eagles territory at the 48. They added another first down on a fourth down pass interference penalty that put the Pirates at the 38. On the next play quarterback Kelby Wilson lobbed a screen pass to the right to Phil Henry who weaved his way down to the 12 for a 26 yard gain. A late hit penalty at the end of the play added 6 more yards. 
After a plunge up the middle by Lerandeau netted a yard, Wilson took the ball on a keeper around left end. He was nearly caught in the backfield for a loss but broke the tackle and took the ball into the end zone for a touchdown. Wilson then passed to James Hood for the 2-point conversion to make it 8-36. That was the last positive gain of the game for the Pirates who were 3 and out on their final two possessions. The first was killed by a high snap in shotgun formation that had Wilson chasing the ball down at the 3-yard line, just avoiding a turnover. Lewis County meanwhile scored on each of their final 3 possessions to end the game with 43 seconds left in the third quarter on the 45-point mercy rule. Lerandeau was the only Prairie runner with positive yardage as he gained 5 yards on 3 carries. Prairie wound up minus 33 in rushing yardage. Wilson completed 11 of 27 pass attempts for 87 yards. Hood caught 4 for 39 yards, Rieman 4 for 2 yards, Henry 2 for 26 yards and Jacob Holthaus 1 for 20 yards. Lewis County rolled up 320 yards rushing led by Zach Winner who had 122 yards on 14 carries. Dan Luke completed 3 of 3 passes for 87 yards and 2 touchdowns and Ryan Wessels completed 2 of 3 for 40 yards. 
Defensively Wilson had 3 solo tackles, 8 assists and a fumble recovery. Rieman had 5 solos and 3 assists and Lerandeau had 3 solos and 7 assists. Kyle Groom and Holthaus each had 1 solo and 5 assists and Henry had 2 solos, 3 assists and a fumble recovery. The loss drops Prairie to 0-4 in league play and 0-5 on the season. Prairie 0 0 8 - 8 Lewis County 14 14 28 -56 L-Oliver 57 pass from Luke (Bovey run) L-Oliver 51 run (run failed) L-Mizer 10 run (Wessels run) L-Robertson 7 run (run failed) L-Harris 7 pass from Luke (Behler run) P-Wilson 5 run (Hood pass from Wilson) L-Wessels 8 run (run failed) L-Luke 4 run (Luke run) L-Baldus 41 run (no attempt-game over) |
 |
