| Pirates
beat Oakley by 20
Quarterback Jake Bruner was battling the flu bug and may not have been as sharp as usual but still provided 332 yards of total offense and led the Prairie football team to a 42-22 win over Oakley in a state quarterfinal game Friday, Nov. 6 at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow. 
It was Prairie’s third win in 4 state playoff games against the Hornets with all 3 wins coming at Moscow. With the win Prairie will play Raft River next at the Trojans home field in Malta, Idaho Saturday, Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. MST. Prairie received the opening kickoff and marched the ball down the field to the Oakley 13. At that point they stalled with 3 false start penalties led to a fourth and 8 from the 14 that resulted in an incomplete pass. Oakley took over and got a 41 yard gain on a pass on third down with Luke Wemhoff making a touchdown saving tackle at the Prairie 43. On the next play Oakley fumbled and Calvin Hinkelman recovered at the Prairie 41. An 18 yard sweep to the left by Terran Peery put Prairie in Oakley territory. Two pass plays netted 24 yards to the Oakley 17. Wemhoff ran the ball twice for 7 and 6 yards to set up first and goal at the 4. Brandon Anderson went up the middle on the next play for the game’s first points. The 2 point try was stopped short as Prairie led 6-0. Oakley got another big pass gain in their next possession but it was to be their last significant passing gain of the game. Oakley got down to the Prairie 17 before starting to go backwards. Bruner tackled a pass receiver for a 3 yard loss. Hinkelman then sacked Oakley quarterback Matt Pickett for another 3 yard loss. Finally on fourth and 13, Isaiah Shears hit Pickett just as he was throwing, forcing an incompletion. Prairie just needed 1 play to make it a 2 touchdown lead as Bruner found Shears open down the left side. Shears made a great move to avoid a would-be tackler at about the 50 and raced to the end zone on a 77 yard scoring play. The 2-point try again failed as Prairie led 12-0. Prairie forced Oakley to punt after conceding 1 first down and took over at their own 35. Two plays later came probably the most bizarre play of the game. Bruner backpedaled before a rush, looked to change his mind midpass and lost control of the ball. It rolled down his arm and Oakley’s Rem Sagers was right there to grab the ball and take it to the end zone for a touchdown. Oakley added the 2-pointer to cut Prairie’s lead to 12-8 early in the second quarter. Prairie would answer right back though as Anderson took the kickoff back 20 yards to the Prairie 36. Prairie faced a third and 7 but converted when Shears caught a pass for 17 yards. Bruner then ran a keeper to the left for 14 more yards.  After
a 10handed grab by Peery that gained 4 yards, Peery ran a sweep around
left end for 26 yards and a touchdown. Bruner powered his way to the end
zone for the 2-pointer to put Prairie up 20-8.
Oakley was forced to punt when Shears smelled out a screen pass and tackled the receiver for an 8 yard loss on third down. Prairie couldn’t move the ball either and turned it back to Oakley at the Prairie 46. Shears sacked Pickett for an 11 yard loss which led to another Oakley punt. Shears returned the punt 10 yards to the Prairie 20. Prairie then went exclusively to the ground attack, mostly to the left side where Oakley appeared weaker on defense. Wemhoff picked up 8 on a sweep to the left. Bruner looked to pass on the next play but wound up picking up 9 on a keeper. Bruner then picked up 33 on a keeper to the Oakley 30. Peery was stopped on a run up the middle for a loss of 1 but Wemhoff took a pitch around the vulnerable left side for 31 yards and a touchdown on the next play. The 2-point pass attempt fell incomplete but Prairie held a 26-8 lead with 1:21 left in the half. Oakley ran out most of the rest of the half with a couple of Prairie penalties helping them to a first down. Prairie got it back with 2 seconds left and tried a long pass to Shears but it went incomplete. Oakley received the second half kickoff and Jordan Cranney had a couple of big running gains of 18 and 17 yards that helped Oakley get to the Prairie 14. At that point Cranney disappeared from the offense and Pickett wound up getting sacked by Anderson and Hinkelman on fourth down for an 8 yard loss to give Prairie the ball at the 20. Prairie moved the ball down to the Oakley 24 before giving it back to the Hornets on a fumble. Oakley got to the Prairie 39 where another bizarre play happened. Hinkelman put a pass rush on Pickett and Pickett wound up throwing the ball as Hinkelman took him down. What appeared to be a 10 yard loss with an intentional grounding call added to it turned into just an incomplete pass. The bizarre part is that the down box had already moved and no one knew where the ball was supposed to be spotted. Oakley wound up losing 3 yards on an incomplete pass as they spotted the ball at the back end of the chains. That turned out to be huge as Oakley gained 8 yards on the next play for what should have been a first down. Instead it was fourth and 2 and Pickett was stopped inches shy of a first down on the next play. Bruner connected with Shears over the middle on the next play for 23 yards with Shears gaining 10 of that after the first tackler hit him. Four running plays moved the ball to the Oakley 27. From there Bruner found a wide open Shears down the right side for a 27 yard touchdown play. Devin Bruegeman then made a great catch on the 2-pointer that brought to mind David Sigler’s catch in the same end zone against Oakley in the 2008 championship game as Bruegeman leaped above the defender to make the catch. That made it 34-8. It didn’t take Oakley long to answer as the kickoff coverage bugaboo hit the Pirates again. Cranney picked up the kickoff at left sideline at the 29. He reversed back to the right and wound up going 71 yards for a touchdown. Cranney then ran in the 2-pointer to make it 34-16 with 9:16 left to play. 
Oakley tried an onside kick with Peery grabbing the ball at the Prairie 47 and paying for it as he was hit right away on a tackle the Prairie coaches thought should have been penalized as a helmet-to-helmet hit. Prairie added an insurance touchdown with an 8 play drive that culminated with Bruner scoring from the 6. Bruner then ran in the 2-pointer to make it 42-16. Oakley took over at their own 32 after the kickoff and picked up a couple of first downs before turning over the ball on downs at the Prairie 47. Up 26 with about 1:45 to play, Prairie sent their JV offense onto the field. A messed up handoff on second down saw Oakley’s Carston Lind pick up the loose ball at the 50 and return it all the way to the 5 yard line. Oakley scored their only offensive touchdown of the game on the next play to cut the deficit to 42-22. Prairie was able to run out the clock after receiving the ensuing kickoff. Prairie wound up outgaining the Hornets 514 yards to to 202. 3 turnovers by the Pirates helped make the score closer than it should have been. Prairie gained 255 yards rushing on 36 attempts with Peery gaining 94 yards on 11 carries to lead the team. Bruner had 73 yards on 10 carries and Wemhoff had 68 yards on 8 carries. Bruner completed 17 of 25 passes with 1 interception (the bizarre play that resulted in Oakley’s first touchdown) for 259 yards. Shears caught 8 passes for 180 yards despite a lot of double coverage. Hinkelman caught 4 for 42. Peery caught 2 for 21, Bruegeman 1 for 8 and Wemhoff 1 for 8. Oakley had 110 yards rushing on 39 attempts led by Cranney with 102 yards on 19 carries. Pickett completed 10 of 24 passes for 92 yards. Hinkelman led the defense with 8 tackles with 1½ sacks and a fumble recovery. Bruner added 7½ tackles. Shears had 7 tackles with a sack. Wemhoff had 7 tackles. Peery had 5½ tackles with a sack. Philip Spencer had 4½ tackles and ½ a sack. Anderson had 3½ tackles. Justin Schumacher had 2 tackles. Bobby Hood had 1½ tackles. Bruegeman had 1 tackle and Brandon Higgins, Daniel Mager and Caleb McWilliams each had ½ a tackle. Prairie is now 10-0 on the season with their 22nd straight win. Prairie 12 14 0 16 -42 Oakley 8 0 0 14 -22 P-Anderson 4 run (run failed) 3:37 1st P-Shears 77 pass from Bruner (pass failed) 0:42 1st O-Sagers 20 interception return (Bedke pass from Cooper) 9:01 2nd P-Peery 26 run (Bruner run) 7:19 2nd P-Wemhoff 31 run (pass failed) 1:21 2nd P-Shears 27 pass from Bruner (Bruegeman pass from Bruner) 9:31 4th O-Cranney 71 kickoff return (Cranney run) 9:16 4th P-Bruner 6 run (Bruner run) 5:56 4th O-Mitton 5 run (run failed) 1:26 4th
Pirates to play at Raft River 1 p.m. Saturday The Prairie football team will play at Raft River in the semifinal round of the 1A D1 state playoffs this Saturday, Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. MST (1 p.m. PST). Raft River High School is located at Malta which is located east Twin Falls. Follow I-84 east of Twin Falls past Burley and Rupert and stay on I-84 as it swings south towards Salt Lake City. Watch for the State Highway 81 exit which should be the next exit after the freeway splits. Take SH 81 into Malta and turn right on Center St. which will take you right to the football field. Apparently the available time slots at Holt Arena in Pocatello were filled by schools in larger classifications and Raft River as the host in this round elected to play at their home field. Lapwai plays Valley in the other semifinal Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Kibbie Dome. A Lapwai-Prairie state championship game would be at the Kibbie Dome Nov. 20. Any other matchup will take place at Pocatello Nov. 20 or 21. For those that can't make the trip, IdahoSports.com will have a webcast of the game. 
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, won 72-6 Nov. 6-State Playoffs, vs Oakley, 1 p.m., Kibbie Dome, won 42-22 Nov. 14-State Playoffs, at Raft River, 1 p.m. PST Nov. 20-State Championship, TBA *league game |
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