After a 35 point loss in Football to Rival Battle Ground on September 19th, Prairie High School looked to recover from their first loss of the season in the following games and prove the flunk was a one-time thing. Their next two opponents were games they felt crucial to win to prove their skill: A 4A team, Union high school at home on September 24th, followed by 3A school Mountain View at Mackenzie Stadium on the 3rd of October.
The Union game was first up. Union struck first, intercepting a throw and getting to the endzone in a 2 yard touchdown. Prairie made moves of their own, getting a 5 yard touchdown thrown by Devin Vigue to Kian Kruger. The game ended up being a back and forth clash of touchdowns, with Union getting another 9 yard touchdown followed by Prairie getting their own 9 yard touchdown, entering halftime 14-13. Union scored another touchdown in the 3rd quarter, making it 14-19, and that score went into the final minutes of the 4th quarter. Prairie managed to pull through in the end, getting the touchdown and 4th down stops it needed to scrape by Union in a 20-19 score game, bringing Prairie up to 3-1.
Despite the win, the coaches knew they had things to work on for the future. “Union wise, I think play calling offensively and defensively could’ve been better,” Head coach Junior Miller said in regards to the Union game. “We could have done a little better job with that as a staff, to make sure we had the right players in, do the right plays at the right times, and defensively not making the mistakes we did to give them the points they got, cause it shouldn’t have been that many points.”
Keeping in mind what they needed to work on, Prairie marched on to prepare and fix themselves up for the away game they had that next week against Mountain View. This game had a lot less contention than the last game, with Prairie scoring a 47 yard touchdown throw in the 1st quarter, followed by 2 more touchdowns in the second quarter. By halftime, the score was 21-6, and Prairie showed no signs of stopping this train. Prairie entered the 2nd half with three more unanswered touchdowns, one coming from a 96 yard interception return by Jackson Kimball, and rounded the game off with 2 more touchdowns in the 4th, ending the game off in a devastating blowout of 56-9.
The dominant win over Mountain View was a showing for Prairie. “I think we had a great game,” Isaac Hasselblad, a defensive lineman for the Prairie Varsity Football team said regarding the win against Mountain View and what they did well. “But probably just, you know, we can’t go into games thinking it’s going to be an easy game. You know, like underestimating people.” Prairie learned letting their guard down on any opponent, even ones with a losing record, could always turn around on you, and they were sure to stay up and active the entire game.
The wins over these two teams continued Prairie’s goal to be a contender for the Playoffs, and showed they were a team that should not be underestimated.
