| Pirates
lose by 10 at Timberline
In a game that saw the lead change hands 4 times it came down to Timberline’s running attack being more consistent than Prairie’s passing as Prairie lost 28-38 at Timberline Friday, Sept. 23. 
Prairie seems to have a disaster on their first possession just about every game and this one was no different as a bad punt snap set Timberline up at the Prairie 7 yard line. Prairie dodged a bullet though as they rushed the Timberline quarterback and forced a fumble with Tim Russell recovering for Prairie out at the 21. A scramble out of passing formation for 35 yards by quarterback Mat Forsmann followed 2 plays later by a 36 yard gain on a post pattern from Forsmann to Phillip Henry set the Pirates up at the Timberline 10. Prairie’s drive then stalled and they turned the ball over on downs. Timberline answered back with a long drive down to the Prairie 13 before consecutive illegal motion penalties and then an interception on an end around option pass stopped them. Jacob Holthaus picked off the pass at the 15 and returned it to the 25. Unfortunately Prairie gave Timberline the ball back on a fumble two plays later. This time Timberline capitalized with a touchdown for a 0-6 lead.  Prairie
answered right back though with Forsmann connecting with Russell on a quick
slant out of a spread formation for 41 yards. During that play the coaches
noticed Timberline had no middle linebacker in their defense of the spread
and had big separation between their tackles. Prairie capitalized 3 plays
later as Forsmann took the center snap and ran a sneak up the middle. With
no defenders in the middle, Forsmann went all the way for a touchdown on
a 26 yard run. He then completed a 2-pont conversion pass to Ryan Daly
to give Prairie an 8-6 lead early in the second quarter.
Timberline came right back thanks to a pair of 26 yard runs to retake the lead at 8-12. Prairie then responded in kind as Forsmann tossed a little screen pass out to Ryan Daly on the first play after the kickoff return. Daly went 54 yards with the pass to the Timberline 13. A facemask penalty on the play set Prairie up with a first and goal at the 7. Three plays later Prairie had advanced the ball just 2 yards but then Forsmann connected with Holthaus on a slant pattern for the touchdown. The conversion try failed leaving Prairie ahead 14-12. Prairie had another chance to score before the half as Corey Schaeffer sacked the Timberline quarterback on fourth down giving Prairie the ball at the Timberline 39. Danny Riener took a pitchout around the end for a 22 yard gain to the 17. On the next play Prairie tried to have Riener pass out of the same formation but his pass was intercepted in the end zone. Neither team could move the ball the rest of the half as Prairie held onto a 14-12 lead at the break. Prairie tried an onside kick to open the second half but Timberline recovered at their own 47 and then took just 6 plays to cover the 53 yards for the go-ahead score. After forcing Prairie to punt, Timberline extended their lead with a 54 yard run for a score to make it 14-24. 
Prairie came back with their own long run for a score as Riener took a pitch to the right, broke a tackle at about the 40 and then went on in for 56 yard scoring play. Forsmann added the 2-pointer on a run to the left to pull the Pirates within 2 at 22-24. On the kickoff, Ronnie Chandler’s deep kick rolled past the return man who finally picked it up at the 1 and only got as far as the 3. After a penalty and a near safety, Timberline had the ball just outside their own end zone and it looked like Prairie would at least get great field position. On the next play though Timberline picked up 38 yards on a flare pass to the right and then went 61 yards for a touchdown on a running play. They added the 2-pointer to push the lead back to 10 at 22-32. Prairie came back with a 14-play 55 yard drive that was mostly running plays. The only pass completion of the drive was for the touchdown. Somehow Holthaus was left uncovered in the end zone and Forsmann tossed him the ball for an 8-yard scoring play to cut the lead to 28-32 with 8:30 left to play. Prairie tried another onside kick but Timberline recovered at the 50. They then moved down to the 23 before the Pirates defense forced a fumble with Prairie recovering at their own 20. Prairie was unable to move the ball though with Forsmann being sacked on fourth down for a 12 yard loss that gave Timberline the ball at the 8. Prairie forced another fumble but Timberline recovered out at the 21. Two plays later a bad snap in shotgun formation led to another 13 yard loss. Prairie took over on downs at the 30. After an incompletion, Prairie had a bad snap in shotgun formation that led to a 19 yard loss. After two more incompletions Timberline took over at the 11 with just over a minute to play. They could have had their quarterback take a knee and run out the clock but chose to have him run the ball. They wound up adding a meaningless touchdown as the clock expired to make the final score 28-38. For the game Riener wound up with 88 yards rushing on 7 carries. Ryan Daly added 36 yards on 11 carries. Forsmann had 3 runs of over 20 yards but sacks and a 30 yard loss as the punter led to him netting just 2 yards on 17 carries. Prairie had 115 yards rushing on 36 attempts. Forsmann completed 5 of 22 pass attempts for 144 yards with 1 interception. Riener was 0 for 1 with an interception. Holthaus caught 2 passes for 13 yards and 32 touchdowns. Ryan Daly caught 1 for 54 yards, Russell 1 for 41 and Henry 1 for 36. Timberline piled up 320 yards rushing with Dusty Daniels picking up 179 of those on 14 carries. Jesse Opresik added 92 yards on 14 carries. Timberline completed 2 of 9 passes for 45 yards with 1 interception. On defense Danny Riener had 17 tackles. Seth Crane had 10 tackles. Russell and Chris Schumacher each had 9 tackles and a fumble recovery. Sean Daly had 6 tackles and a fumble recovery. Henry, Jack Merrill and Ryan Daly had 5 tackles each. Schaeffer had 4 tackles and a sack and Holthaus had an interception. With the loss Prairie drops to 1-4 on the season and 1-3 in league play. They have a bye this week with their next game being against Troy at home on Friday, October 7. Prairie 8 6 8 6 -28 Timberline 6 6 20 6 -38 T-Opresik 2 run (run failed) P-Forsmann 26 run (R. Daly pass from Forsmann) T-Daniels 26 run (run failed) P-Holthaus 5 pass from Forsmann (run failed) T-Poppe 13 run (pass failed) T-Opresik 54 run (run failed) P-Riener 56 run (Forsmann run) T-Daniels 61 run (Poppe run) P-Holthaus 8 pass from Forsmann (pass failed) T-Poppe 7 run (no try, clock expired) SCHEDULE FOR 2005 14-Clearwater Valley, there 21-Lapwai, here 28-Kendrick, there |
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