PRAIRIE GROVE -- Three touchdowns in the fourth quarter enabled Prairie Grove to eliminate their pesky neighbor, Lincoln, from playoff contention in the Wolves' last game as a member of the 4A-1.
Prairie Grove won 34-14 Friday and Tiger coach Danny Abshier, who is now at 199 career wins, noted both teams battled injuries this season and didn't look their best in the first half.
"Tight game, the first half and both teams kicking it around a little bit not taking care of business. Two teams that looked kind of similar. Lots of their starters out, injuries, hash toes. I don't think either team played with a whole lot of sportsmanship in that first half," Abshier said. "Lots of penalties, just a sloppily-played game. In the second half it definitely changed. We get going a little better, didn't turn the ball over anymore, run the draw a couple of times, and it started happening then."
Trading Touchdowns
This year there were four punts and a turnover in the first quarter. Lincoln recovered a Prairie Grove fumble at its own one after Foster Layman broke off a 35-yard run. The Wolves couldn't move the ball and hurriedly punted from their own four in the midst of pressure. The short kick only traveled 26 yards and Prairie Grove was at last able to punch the ball in on Cade Grant's 16-yard run. Paytin Higgins' kicked the PAT and the Tigers were on the board leading 7-0 with all but 45 seconds elapsed in the first quarter.
Lincoln answered on its next possession going 80 yards in six plays with Daytin Davis catching a short pass from Noe Avellaneda and turning the play into a 55-yard touchdown by outrunning all defenders. The hobbled Avellaneda didn't start but was inserted early in the absence of quarterback Tyler Brewer (6-4, 201) and tight end Levi Wright (6-5, 225). Lincoln also played without Eli Rich (6-1, 175), going without a trio of skilled juniors difficult to replace.
Avellaneda's PAT kick went awry and Lincoln settled for a 7-6 deficit, which was the halftime score.
"Our kids played hard and they did a good job with execution and they did a good job of making adjustments at times. They (Prairie Grove) had one good drive and then we missed a couple of tackles on that play. Then after that we really shut them down," Harrison said. "Of course, (Prairie Grove) coach (Danny) Abshier does a good job of making some adjustments at halftime. He always does."
Tigers Build Lead
Prairie Grove widened the gap to 14-6 by scoring on its first possession of the third quarter. Knox Laird overcame a 2-for-9 passing performance in the first half by connecting on all four of his throws in the second half including a 23-yard touchdown toss to Landon Semrad.
A turnover on downs when Carter Scates tackled the punter at Lincoln's 38 set up the next Tiger touchdown with Layman scoring from a yard out on the first play of the fourth quarter. Semrad added to his highlight reel by making an interception. Jared Harger escaped the Wolf defense and wasn't hit until he reached the goal line too late to prevent him from scoring on a 25-yard run. Higgins booted the PAT and Prairie Grove assumed a 27-6 lead at the 9:35 mark of the fourth.
"Noe could only do so much at times and he struggled. With that right leg hurt, he really struggled throwing it off his right foot," Harrison said. "We felt like offensively we could move the ball on them and we just made so many mistakes whether we misread something and threw an interception. We didn't pick up a block here or there. We struggled with some things tonight offensively."
One Last Charge
Lincoln trailed 7-6 at halftime and 14-6 after three quarters Friday. The Wolves mounted one last charge driving 86 yards in nine plays capped by Davis' 51-yard catch and run for a touchdown. The banged up Avellaneda ran the ball in for a 2-point conversion narrowing the gap to 27-14 with 7:o6 remaining in the fourth, but injuries to key players were too much to overcome.
"It wasn't just the losing (of those players), but it was the timing that we lost them. It was when we lost them, how we lost them that this team struggled with," Harrison said. "Looking back on it there was a lot of good things, but there were far too many bad things this year. We had a lot of adversity. We struggled overcoming some of those adversities and once they started piling up, sooner or later, it was like we had so much weight on us and we were trying to carry so much weight."
Prairie Grove iced the game on Caden Redfern 1-yard touchdown pass from Knox Laird followed by Paytin Higgins' PAT kick to stretch the lead to 34-14 with 1:47 left.
Playoff Opponent
Injuries led to changes at tight end for Prairie Grove, one of which became essential trying to block Lincoln's Conner Brown (6-4, 315).
"We're almost full strength now. We lost our tight end, Graham Guenther (6-2, 220). He had surgery on his shoulder so he didn't get to play tonight," Abshier said. "We did get Redfern (6-2, 190) back so that helped. He's a tight end, too, and we used Hayden Black (6-3, 290) as a tight end. That was a lot of help, him getting to move somebody out because they had that big mountain of a kid, Conner Brown, on the end, and we were having trouble getting our sweep off until Black went over there at tight end."
This Friday Prairie Grove travels to Hamburg for a first-round State 4A football playoff game, a team Abshier and the Tiger coaching staff were busy familiarizing themselves with by studying film over the weekend.
"I know they're a three seed in a pretty good conference that's a long way off," Abshier said. "That's what I know."
PRAIRIE GROVE 34, LINCOLN 14
Lincoln^0^6^0^8^--^14
Prairie Grove^7^0^7^20^--^34
General News on 11/13/2019