The Cedar Rapids Prairie football team summed up its performance at John Wall Field Friday night with a six-word yell with Coach Mike Morrissey leading the way.

"We came! We saw! We conquered!"

Boy, did they ever.

The Hawks rolled up 615 yards of total offense and squashed the Linn-Mar Lions, 63-17, in a Mississippi Conference mismatch of epic proportions.

 

 

Morrissey has borrowed the "I came, I saw, I conquered" post-game yell from Caesar, who informed the Roman senate of his victory in the Britain campaign in 55-54 B.C. with the Latin words "Veni, Vidi, Vici."

 

In English, it means the Hawks (4-3) kicked the stuffing out of the Lions (2-5).

Morrissey has been waiting for his team to click on all cylinders this season. This was it.

"We went through the week and we really became a team, became a family," said 6-foot-6, 285-pound offensive lineman Bryce Meeker, "and we really ran the ball like we wanted to."

Quarterback Trey Beckman ran for 138 yards with three touchdowns of 5, 37 and 77 yards. Tailback Mitch Christensen collected 115 yards and three TDs of his own. Backup tailback Keagan Pinter ran for 100 yards and two more scores.

Jesse Vizzini, a speedy receiver, ran for 79 yards. Dylan Kuchemann, the backup QB, got enough playing time to register 60 yards.

Add those numbers together and the Hawks amassed 497 yards on the ground, with Beckman, Christensen and Pinter all reaching triple digits.

"I just want to give all the credit to my linemen," Christensen said wisely. "A lot of them are pretty close friends of mine at Prairie and I know them pretty well."

Christensen gave plugs to Jesse Hynek, Meeker, Matt Jones, Joe Landon, Jonah Manson, Christian Ohrt and Riley Cooling on the offensive line. Toss in Tristan Beyer, a bruising fullback, and you've got a lot of beef coming at you.

"We added it up. It's almost a ton," said Christensen, smiling. "A lot of push."

The little Lions from Linn-Mar did not have much of a chance against the big, bad Hawks. The size differential was immense. "I think it's obvious," said Linn-Mar Coach Bob Forsyth, impressed with the victors.

"They did a nice job tonight," he said. "They did a real nice job."

Prairie averaged - AVERAGED! - 9.4 yards per carry with runs that measured 77, 37, 35, 28, 27, 25, 22, 22, 19, 17, 17, 16 and 12 yards. If you didn't gain 10 yards, the referees almost made you throw it back.

Beckman had a field of riches to choose from.

"It makes it a heck of a lot easier on me, I can tell you that much," the junior quarterback remarked. "My job is to distribute it to the guys that can make plays and it worked out well tonight."

Beckman did his damage with option keepers, scooting through big holes and racing to the end zone three times.

"It worked well tonight," he said. "Coach did a great job of calling plays and making sure we were in the right place at the right time."

Beckman also passed for 118 yards, raising the total offense to a whopping 615.

Morrissey loved the blocking up front. "There were lanes, at times, that maybe I could have scampered through," he said.

"I thought our kids did a great job. And they're just getting better and better and better. That's the nice thing about it."

Prairie's defense also rose to the occasion. The Hawks held the Lions to minus-11 yards on the ground and 137 yards of total offense.

"We took care of our jobs tonight," said Beyer, a star linebacker/defensive end when he's not blocking on offense. "We've got that train on track. Now we just have to keep the momentum."

Don't forget about Sam "The Leg" Drysdale, who went 9-for-9 on his PATs and boomed some of his kickoffs more than 70 yards for touchbacks.

It was a terrific victory for the Hawks, but they celebrated for just a few minutes before a sobering thought crossed their minds.

Prairie hosts the Washington Warriors next Friday night in a battle of 4-3 clubs, and the Warriors have been hot with four straight wins and a 26-10 conquest of previously No.1 Xavier.

"We have a lot of momentum right now, but next week is a huge one," said Beckman. "A huge one."

Ryan Schmidt hit 12 of 21 passes for 148 yards for Linn-Mar, including a 15-yard touchdown pass to Griffin Brennecke. Perrion Scott scored on an 18-yard run and Austin Wolter kicked a 38-yard field goal.

The Lions visit Iowa City High next Friday.

PRAIRIE 63, LINN-MAR 17

LM           CRP
First downs                8            24
Rushes-yards        24-(-11)     53-497
Passing yards           148          118
Comp-Att-Int        12-21-0     5-12-1
Fumbles-lost            3-2           2-1
Punts-avg             9-33.8       3-36.0
Penalties-yards       6-44          9-86

Linn-Mar      0   10   0    7 - 17
Prairie       14   21  14  14 - 63

P - Trey Beckman 5 run (Sam Drysdale kick)
P - Mitch Christensen 6 run (Drysdale kick)
LM - Griffin Brennecke 15 pass from Ryan Schmidt (Austin Wolter kick)
P - Beckman 37 run (Drysdale kick)
P - Christensen 2 run (Drysdale kick)
P - Beckman 77 run (Drysdale kick)
LM - FG Wolter 38
P - Christensen 2 run (Drysdale kick)
P - Keagan Pinter 11 run (Drysdale kick)
LM - Perrion Scott 18 run (Wolter kick)
P - Dylan Kuchemann 2 run (Drysdale kick)
P - Pinter 5 run (Drysdale kick)

Individual statistics

Rushing
Linn-Mar - Scott 3-24, Lembeck 7-(-2), Team 2-(-14), Schmidt 12-(-19)
Prairie - Beckman 8-138, Christensen 19-115, Pinter 12-100, Vizzini 5-79, Kuchemann 5-60, Zimmerman 2-7, Team 2-(-2)

Passing
Linn-Mar - Schmidt 12-21-0-148
Prairie - Beckman 5-12-1-118

Receiving
Linn-Mar - Brennecke 4-50, Schlotterback 2-44, Gassman 2-26, Lembeck 2-2, Ramsey 1-28, Evans 1-(-2)
Prairie - Kuchemann 1-44, Vizzini 1-21, Pinter 1-21, Beyer 1-17, Smith 1-15

 

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