| Troy
thumps Prairie
Turnovers spelled the difference as the Prairie football team lost a White Pine League game to Troy 16-54, on Senior Night, Friday, Oct. 19 at Cottonwood. The loss eliminated the Pirates from any chance at postseason play. Seniors honored prior to the game were Marcus Higgins, Kade Perrin, Garrett Schmidt, Seth Chaffee and Frank Spencer along. Also honored were Kendall Schumacher who does the team’s video and cheerleader Martina Everson. 
Prairie received the opening kickoff and were forced to punt. Troy took over at their own 20 and needed just 6 plays to scored. With the 2-point conversion they took a 0-8 lead. Prairie bounced back thanks in large part to a 30 yard run by freshman quarterback Jake Bruner with a late hit penalty added to the end of it. That set Prairie up with a first and goal at the 9 yard line. They faced a fourth and goal from the 12 when Bruner’s pass was intercepted in the end zone by Troy’s Cody Self, who took the ball all the way to the other end for a touchdown. Instead of a possible tie, all of a sudden it was 0-16. Prairie then gave the ball right back with a fumble on the kickoff return and Troy needed just 1 play to score again. Within a span of 25 seconds Prairie went from a possible tie to a 0-24 deficit. The next Troy kickoff went into the end zone for a touchback. Starting form their own 20 Prairie mounted a scoring drive. Bruner connected with Seth Chaffee for 15 yards. On the next play Prairie ran an option that faked out the referee who blew the whistle early negating what appeared to be a possible big gain. A 19 yard pass from Bruner to Marcus Higgins helped the Pirates recover from that. 2 plays later Garrett Schmidt bulled his way for a 30-yard gain to the Trojan 3. Bruner scored on the next play to put Prairie on the scoreboard. Schmidt added the 2-pointer to make it 8-24. Prairie forced Troy to punt and took over at their own 11. Bruner connected for 49 yards to Higgins to get across midfield and then connected with Schmidt for 30 yards to set Prairie up at the Troy 15. Another end zone interception ended that threat though and Troy capitalized with Brady Griffin bursting through the middle for 70 yards to set up another Troy touchdown that made it 8-32.  Isaiah
Shears returned the following kickoff 22 yards to the Prairie 40 and the
Pirates were able to work their way downfield with just 2 passing plays
and 10 running plays. The longest play of the drive was Lucas Arnzen’s
19 yard run on fourth and 12 from the 19 for a touchdown. Schmidt ran in
the 2-pointer to cut the lead to 16-32 which is where the score stood at
halftime.
Prairie had actually outgained the Trojans 255 yards to 237 yards in the first half but the 3 turnovers spelled the difference. Troy took the second half kickoff and moved the ball to the Prairie 30 before turning the ball over on downs. Prairie took over at their own 30 and moved the ball to the Troy 40 where the Pirates came up 1 yard short on a fourth down play and turned the ball over on downs. Troy was able to take the ball in for another touchdown to go up 16-40. The rest of the half Prairie had little success against the Troy defense, picking up just 1 more first down on their final four possessions while Troy was able to add 2 more touchdowns. Troy outgained the Pirates 223 yards to 79 yards in the second half. Arnzen wound up with 63 yards on 18 carries to lead the rushing attack while Schmidt had 54 yards on 8 carries and Damian McWilliams had 32 yards on 3 carries. Prairie had 164 yards rushing on 40 attempts. Bruner completed 11 of 20 passes with 2 interceptions for 170 yards. Higgins caught 5 passes for 92 yards, Chaffee 3 for 30, Schmidt 2 for 40 and Arnzen 1 for 8. Troy rolled up 307 yards rushing and 151 passing. Griffin had 180 yards on 12 carries while Zach Bafus added 92 yards on 11 carries. Self completed 7 of 13 pass attempts to 5 different receivers. Schmidt led the Pirates defense with 7 tackles plus a sack. Arnzen had 6 tackles. Kade Perrin had 5½ tackles. Dakota Wilson had 3 tackles. Higgins, Jake Rowland and Chaffee had 2½ tackles each. Matt Schwartz had 1½ plus a sack. Joseph Halligan had 1½ tackles while McWilliams, Tyler Hankerson and Shears had 1 each. With the loss Prairie drops to 4-4 on the season and 2-3 in White Pine League play. This week they’ll play their final game of the season at Potlatch on Friday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. Troy 24 8 8 14 -54 Prairie 8 8 0 0 -16 T-Bafus 5 run (Nelson pass from Self) 8:13 1st T-Self 100 yard interception return (Griffin run) 5:03 1st T-Griffin 56 run (Self run) 4:45 1st P-Bruner 3 run (Schmidt run) 0:59 1st T-Bafus 13 pass from Self (Griffin run) 7:39 2nd P-Arnzen 19 run (Schmidt run) 1:16 2nd T-Griffin 6 run (Griffin run) 0:40 3rd T-Griffin 7 run (Hoskins run) 10:04 4th T-Bafus 3 run (pass failed) 5:52 4th  6 earn medals at Potlatch The Cottonwood Wrestling Club participated in the Potlatch tournament on October 20th along with teams from Clearwater Valley, Grangeville, Kamiah, Orofino, Lewiston, Moscow, Clarkston, Colfax, Moses Lake and Potlatch. First place winner was Dalton Ross, Second place winner was Caleb McWilliams. Third place winners were Rhett Crow, Gage Crow, Caleb Butler, and Kyle Schwartz The wrestling team will be participating in the Lewiston Tournament on October 27th at Jenifer Junior High School, wrestling begins at 10:00 AM. PIRATES BOYS FOOTBALL SCHEDULE FOR 2012 17-Kendrick, there, won 76-34 21-Lapwai, here, Homecoming, won 58-42 28-C.V., there, moved to Cottonwood due to smoke at Kooskia, won 58-12 12-Lakeside, here, won 46-0 19-Troy, here, lost 16-54 26-Potlatch, there |
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