IOWA CITY - Iowa City West has been used to creating touchdowns through the air this season. On Friday night, they continued this tradition but got creative.

Trojan running back Ezra Reiners borrowed the job of quarterback Nate Boland and threw a 60-yard halfback pass for a touchdown, propelling the fifth-ranked Trojans by Prairie 58-27 at the Iowa City West field.

In the place of their usual heavy dose of pass, the Trojans (4-0) came out pounding the ball on the ground. When Reiners assumed his natural role of tailback, he dominated. He racked up 167 yards and three touchdowns for the game. As a team, West accumulated a whopping 437 yards of rushing.

“We really pushed our offensive line this week to put out a statement and they did,” said Reiners. “This game gives our O-line a lot of confidence.”

Trojan fullback Micah Kelsay got the scoring started with 5:32 left in the first quarter with a 5-yard bulldoze of a run into the end zone.

“We have seen some things on the scouting report that said they are capable of running the ball,” said Prairie Coach Mike Morrisey. “Obviously we game-planned a lot around their two big receivers. But we weren’t able to make tackles when we had opportunities.”

On the offensive side of the ball, Prairie had trouble getting anything going. Much of this can be attributed to the absence of starting quarterback Jace Hanna, who was watching the game from the sideline on crutches.

Sophomore Trey Beckman and junior Dylan Kuchemann were his replacements, and they did their best with the situation. But the Trojan defense didn’t offer much sympathy for these young quarterbacks.

“They were tough,” said Morrisey. “They were physical and fast and just a good team. It took our quarterbacks some time to settle down a little bit and try and find a rhythm."

Early in the second quarter, Reiners scampered into the end zone with a 4-yard run to push the Trojans ahead 14-0. Then West got creative.

Boland handed off to Reiners, who steered out to the left, looking like a sweep play. But instead of turning it upfield, Reiners stepped back and launched the ball downfield to Jeremy Morgan. The ball was underthrown but the talented Morgan stopped in his tracks, snatched it and proceeded to outrun the Prairie defense for 60 yards and the touchdown.

“We worked on it a couple of times in practice,” said Reiners. “We drew it up and it worked out. I threw it up to a big guy and all he had to do was go up and get it.”

The jack-of-all-trades back rolled for another touchdown from 43 yards out in the third quarter, giving him his third of the night.

Despite a 21-0 halftime deficit, Prairie (2-2) kept clawing. Demetrius Harper took the opening kickoff of the second half 90 yards for a touchdown to get the Hawks on the board.

Then, Prairie wide receiver Jarred Edmonds single-handedly proceeded to torch the Trojan secondary. He caught a 44-yard pass from Beckman, which counted as the first positive passing yards for Prairie in the game. Three plays later, Beckman and Edmonds connected again in the corner of the end zone making the score 37-13.

On Prairie's next position, Edmonds caught a 69-yard score from Kuchemann, who had been rotating with Beckman. On their next possession, Kuchemann tossed another long touchdown to Harper, covering 68 yards for the score.

“We got comfortable and our guys started to get into a rhythm,” said Morrisey. “Our kids fought hard and never quit and we have to give them credit for that.”

IOWA CITY WEST 58, PRAIRIE 27

CRP           ICW

First Downs      7             17
Rushes-Yards     32-88         49-437
Passing          5-21-2        10-15-0
Passing Yards    200           172
Punts            5-36          2-35
Fumbles/Lost     0-0           2-2
Penalties        6-50          9-75

Prairie   0   0   13  14 - 27
IC West   7   14  23  14 - 58

SCORING PLAYS

ICW: Micah Kelsay 5 run (Mueng Sunday kick)
ICW: Ezra Reiners 4 run (Sunday kick)
ICW: Jeremy Morgan 60 pass from Reiners (Sunday kick)
CRP: Demetrius Harper 90 kickoff return (kick failed)
ICW: Kelsay 1 run (Sunday kick)
ICW: West defense safety (gang tackle)
ICW: Reiners 43 run (Sunday kick)
CRP: Jarred Edmonds 24 pass from Trey Beckman (Samuel Drysdale kick)
ICW: Reiners 1 run (Sunday kick)
CRP: Edmonds 69 pass from Dylan Kuchemann (Drysdale kick)
ICW: Devin Raffensperger 20 run (Sunday kick)
CRP: Harper 68 pass from Kuchemann (Drysdale kick)
ICW: Raffensperger 12 run (Sunday kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing
Prairie: Mitchell Christensen 11-31, Trey Beckman 9-32, JoJo Simpson 5-6, Dylan Kuchemann 5-4, DeMetrius Harper 2-15
ICW: Ezra Reiners 18-167, Micah Kelsay 11-53, Devin Raffensperger 9-140, Tavian Smith 5-45, Jessie Peterson 4-29, Nate Boland 2-3.

Passing
Prairie: Trey Beckman 3-14-1 63 yards, Dylan Kuchemann 2-7-1 138 yards
ICW: Nate Boland 9-14-0 112 yards, Reiners 1-1-0 60 yards

Receiving
Prairie: Jarred Edmonds 4-137, Harper 1-68, Kentrel Smith 1-minus 5.
ICW: Jeremy Morgan 7-142, Reiners 1-19, Conner Greene 1-minus 5, Colin Baker 1-6