| Pirates
hold off Raft Rierv
The Prairie Pirates got off to a fast start and then were able to hold off Raft River’s comeback for a 44-30 win at Malta Saturday, Nov. 14. The win advances the Pirates to their second straight appearance in the 1A D1 State Championship Game, which will be held Saturday, Nov. 21 at Pocatello. The game will be a rematch of last year’s title game against the Valley Vikings of Hazelton. The win was also the 23rd straight for the Pirates, matching the longest winning streak in school history set by the 2008-09 teams. 
Prairie jumped out to a 22-0 lead in the first quarter only to see Valley get back within 6 at 36-30 in the fourth quarter. Luke Wemhoff made a couple of huge plays in the final 10 minutes to seal the win, a 45 yard touchdown run and the ensuing 2-point conversion that pushed the lead back to 14, and his third interception of the game with 2:30 to play that sealed the win. Prairie received the opening kickoff which went for a touchback. Prairie proceeded to march the ball down the field mixing run and pass plays. Finally on a second and 15 play from the 25 Jake Bruner found Terran Peery open over the middle for a 25 yard scoring play. Prairie added the 2-pointer on a bizarre play where Bruner ran a keeper, got stopped at about the 1, pitched it back to Peery, who also got stopped and pitched it to Isaiah Shears who found an open lane on the right side to make it 8-0. Raft River was forced to punt with the wind carrying the ball into the end zone for a touchback on what turned out to be a 64 yard punt. Peery ripped off a 51 yard gain on a trap to the left to move the ball to the Trojan 15. At that point Prairie looked like the did in the red zone on their opening drive against Oakley as they had 3 false start penalties in 4 plays. Bruner’s fourth down pass to Shears came up just inches short of a first down at the 5. Raft River was forced to punt again and Prairie took over at the 50. Calvin Hinkelman picked up 22 yards over the left side and Bruner then hit Brandon Anderson deep for a 28 yard scoring play. A false start on the 2-point try led to an incomplete pass and Prairie led 14-0. Raft River picked up their initial first down on their next possession but a bad snap to the quarterback saw Bruner recover the ball at the Trojan 44. Wemhoff picked up 6 on first down. Bruner passed to Shears for 28 down the right sideline to set up first and goal just inside the 10. Hinkelman then burst through the middle for the 10-yard touchdown. Wemhoff added the 2-pointer to make it 22-0 with 2:14 left in the first quarter.  Raft
River put together their first scoring drive of the game on their next
possession. Junior quarterback Kolten Hitt connected with his twin brother
Kayden Hitt for 30 yards on a fourth and 6 play to keep the drive going.
That same duo later converted the touchdown on a fourth and 2 from the
8 yard line. The 2-point try was stopped as Raft River cut the lead to
22-6.
The Trojans tried an onside kick to build on their momentum but Devin Bruegeman picked the ball up on the bounce and returned it 3 yards to the Prairie 47. On the next play Bruner found a wide-open Shears down the left side for 33 yards. Bruner then ran the ball himself around the right side for 20 yards and a touchdown. The 2-point pass attempt went incomplete as Prairie pushed their lead back to 22 at 28-6. Wemhoff intercepted a pass at the Prairie 49 to end Raft River’s next possession. Prairie was able to move the ball down to the 8 yard line despite 3 penalties. At that point Bruner tried to pass to Bruegeman and Raft River’s Wacey Holtman intercepted at the 7. He took it all the way to the Prairie 44 before Bruner was able to make the tackle. A 22 yard gain on a screen pass moved the ball to the 22. After a loss of 2, Wemhoff appeared to make his second interception of the game but Kayden Hitt was able to get his hands on the ball as he and Wemhoff went to the ground and the referee called joint possession which goes to the offense. That set up a first and goal at the 4 and 3 plays later Rafter River scored. The 2-point try failed making it 28-12 with 3:11 left in the half. Prairie took over at their 27 after the kickoff and were able to move the ball down the field to the Raft River 14. At that point Bruner passed toward Peery and the ball was deflected with Colton Koller making the grab for the interception at the 2 yard line. The half ran out 2 plays later. Raft River received the second half kickoff and took over at their own 27. Prairie gave up a first down on a questionable pass interference penalty where ball appeared to bounce in to the receiver. It didn’t matter though as Wemhoff got his second interception this time at the Prairie 49 and returned it 17 yards to the Raft River 34. Bruner ran a read option to the right on the next play and covered the 34 yards to the end zone. Hinkelman ran in the 2-pointer to make it 36-12. Raft River answered back with the Hitt twins connected on a 27 yard pass play for the touchdown. Prairie again stopped the 2-point try as Raft River cut the lead to 36-18. Raft River kicked it deep with shears returning the ball 23 yards to the Prairie 41. Bruner was stopped short on a fourth and 2 play with Raft River taking over at the 50. Raft River scored again when Kolten Hitt connected with Holtman down the right sideline for a 45 yard touchdown play. Prairie stopped the 2-point try but Raft River had cut the margin to 12 at 36-24 with 3:50 left in the third quarter. On Prairie’s next possession Bruner had a 33 yard run to move the ball into Raft River territory but 15 yards worth of penalties led to a fourth down incompletion as Raft River took over at their 38. 
Pass plays of 18 and 30 yards moved the Trojans to the Prairie 8 and their scored 3 plays later to cut the lead to 6 at 36-30 with 10:33 left to play. Anderson fielded the ensuing kickoff on the sideline at the Prairie 22 but his momentum took him out of bounds at that point. Prairie looked to both score and take time off the clock and went exclusively to the running game. Peery picked up 15 yards on a third and 4 to keep the drive going. Bruner then picked up 11 yards around the right side to move the ball to the Trojan 45. On the next play Prairie ran a trap to the left side with Wemhoff breaking into the clear for a 45 yard touchdown run. Wemhoff then ran in the 2-pointer to give Prairie a 44-30 lead with 8:27 left. Raft River picked up a couple of first downs on pass plays then had 4 straight incompletions as they turned the ball back to Prairie on downs at the Pirate 45. Prairie looked to run it again but a 6 yard loss led to a punt attempt. Bruner’s punt went straight up into the wind and only went about 10 yards downfield. It didn’t count though as Prairie had a false start penalty. Coach Ryan Hasselstrom, after seeing the punt, decided to go ahead and go for it on fourth down. A bad snap led to an incomplete pass and Raft River took over at the Prairie 40. The Trojans moved the ball down to the 14 with the help of a pass interference penalty. On a first down play at the Prairie 14, Kolten Hitt looked to connect with his brother for a touchdown but Wemhoff stepped in front for his third interception. With the time remaining Prairie needed a couple of first downs to be able to run out the clock and Peery provided them with runs of 13 yards on second and 7 and 9 yards on another second and 7. Just prior to the 9 yard run, Raft River took their final timeout with 1:26 to play. Peery’s first down run enabled Prairie to go into victory formation as Bruner dropped to a knee twice to run out the clock. For the third time in 4 games Prairie wound up with more rushing yardage than passing yardage as they had 383 yards rushing on 44 attempts and 207 yards passing on 13 receptions. Peery had 129 yards rushing on 13 carries. Bruner had 119 on 16 carries, Hinkelman 72 on 11 carries and Wemhoff 63 yards on 4 carries. Bruner was 13 for 22 for 207 yards and 2 interceptions. Shears caught 3 passes for 73 yards and also had a couple of uncharacteristic drops that could have led to another 100+ yard game. Hinkelman caught 4 for 49, Peery 4 for 48, Anderson 1 for 28 and Bruegeman 1 for 9. Prairie bottled up Raft River’s running game holding them to 55 yards on 37 attempts and only 2 plays that went for more than 6 yards. Kolten Hitt kept Raft River in it by hitting 16 of 33 passes for 265 yards but had 3 big interceptions. Kayden Hitt had 8 catches for 138 yards. Hinkelman led the defense with 11½ tackles and ½ a sack. Bruner had 8½ tackles with 1 sack and 1 fumble recovery. Wemhoff had 5½ tackles and 3 interceptions. Anderson had 5 tackles and ½ a sack. Peery and Shears each had 4 tackles. Philip Spencer and 3½ tackles. Bruegeman and Jayce Huling each had 2 tackles and Bobby Hood and Nick Mager had 1 tackle each. Prairie is now 11-0 on the season. Prairie 22 6 8 8 -44 Raft River 0 12 12 6 -30 P-Peery 25 pass from Bruner (Shears run) 8:41 1st P-Anderson 28 pass from Bruner (pass failed) 3:26 1st P-Hinkelman 10 run (Wemhoff run) 2:14 1st R-Ka. Hitt 8 pass from Ko. Hitt (run failed) 10:02 2nd P-Bruner 20 run (pass failed) 9:27 2nd R-Holtman 3 run (pass failed) 3:11 2nd P-Bruner 34 run ( Hinkelman run) 10:08 3rd R-Ka. Hitt 27 pass from Ko. Hitt (pass failed) 7:21 3rd R-Holtman 45 pass from Ko. Hitt (pass failed) 3:50 3rd R-Ko. Hitt 4 run (pass failed) 10:33 4th P-Wemhoff 45 run (Wemhoff run) 8:27 4th
Pirates to play Valley for Championship at noon PST Saturday The Prairie football team will play Valley of Hazelton for the 1A D1 state championship Saturday, Nov. 21, at noon PST at Holt Arena in Pocatello. It is a rematch of last year's championship game, won by Prairie 72-18. The 11-0 Pirates are carrying a school-record tying 23 game winning streak into the game. The last 23-game win streak came to an end at Holt Arena in 2009 in a state championship rematch against Oakley. For those that can't make it to the game Idahosports.com will have a free live webcast. 
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. won 44-30 Nov. 21-State Championship vs. Valley at Pocatello, noon PST *league game PIRATES BOYS BASKETBALL SCHEDULE FOR 2015-16 *indicates league game 4-Grangeville, here, Idaho County Shootout, V only, 6 p.m. 8-Asotin, here 10-Kendrick, there 15-Kamiah, there* 18-Lapwai, here* 7-Moscow, here, 4 p.m. 8-C.V., there* 9-Troy, here*, 4 p.m. (Quad) 12-Genesee, there*, 4:30 & 7:30 15-Asotin, there, 4:30 & 7:30 16-Potlatch, here*, 4 p.m. 22-Kamiah, here* 28-Troy, here* 30-Potlatch, there*, 1 p.m. 4-Lapwai, there* 6-C.V., here*, 1 p.m. 9-Moscow, there, 4 p.m. 12-Grangeville, there 15-26-District at LCSC 26-State Play-In #1 TBA 28-State Play-In #2 TBA March 3-5-State at Caldwell |
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