Prairie gets on track against Fort

Prairie rolled up 47 points and 479 yards of offense Friday against Fort Vancouver. Not that Colin Seitz was surprised.

“We expect to score a lot of points,” the Falcons’ quarterback said, following a 47-23 victory over the Trappers at Kiggins Bowl. “The receivers were running great routes. We have great speed at receiver.”

Seitz threw touchdowns of 63 yards to Jesse Zalk, 42 yards to Avi Slifer, and 20 yards to Zalk as Prairie (2-2, 1-1) won the Class 3A Greater St. Helens League contest. Seitz also ran 13 yards for a score.

But despite the firepower, Prairie found itself nursing a 14-7 lead at halftime. That’s when the Falcons broke loose, scoring 20 points in the third quarter.

“We can be balanced,” coach Terry Hyde said. “We’ve been inconsistent in the run. If we can run the ball, we can keep the defense guessing.”

The Falcons rushed for 183 yards, with 133 of those coming in the second half. But it was their passing attack that controlled the game. Seitz finished 13 of 20 for 260 yards with no interceptions.

“Colin makes good decisions on where to throw the ball,” Hyde said. “He didn’t force anything. Of course, he’s throwing to a pretty good receiving corps.”

On Prairie’s third play from scrimmage, Seitz found Zalk for the 63-yard score. The next time Prairie had the ball, it put together a two-play, 80-yard drive, with Seitz throwing 38 yards to Tyler Vea and 42 yards to Slifer.

The Falcons stalled the rest of the half, and Fort Vancouver (2-2, 0-1) answered with a 9-yard touchdown run by Robert Bain.

“The second half, we were still confident,” Zalk said. “We were just beating ourselves.”

That wasn’t the case in the third quarter. Prairie’s Dylan Axtell recovered a Fort Vancouver fumble on the opening possession of the second half, and the Falcons turned that into a touchdown and a 20-7 lead. Moments later, Prairie put together a 62-yard drive that ended with Seitz’s TD run.

“We played poorly both halves,” Fort Vancouver coach Cal Szueber said. “We could tell we weren’t focused in the second half. We made some mental mistakes in the secondary.

“We’ll play better than this.”

PRAIRIE 47, FORT VANCOUVER 23

Prairie 14 0 20 13—47

Fort Vancouver 0 7 0 16—23

First quarter

P—Jesse Zalk 63 from Colin Seitz (Forest Krant kick)

P—Avi Slifer 42 from Seitz (Krant kick)

Second quarter

FV—Robert Bain 9 run (Oswaldo Camarena kick)

Third quarter

P—Zalk 20 from Seitz (kick failed)

P—Seitz 13 run (Krant kick)

P—Jode DeKlerk 9 run (Krant kick)

Fourth quarter

FV—Jose Johnson 4 run (Johnson run)

P—Nick Gawley 7 run (kick failed)

FV—Mario Avalos-Eyler 19 from Hayden Heying (Jai Girod run)

Leaders

Rushing—Prairie: Jesse Zalk 4-58; Jode DeKlerk 5-46; Coleman Weisenborn 2-40. Fort Vancouver: Jordan Vela 17-66; Richard Vansiclen 10-39, Robert Bain 7-37.

Passing—Prairie: Colin Seitz 13-20-260-0; Coleman Weisenborn 2-2-36-0. Fort Vancouver: Richard Vansiclen 8-18-91-2; Hayden Heying 3-6-66-0.

Receiving—Prairie: Jesse Zalk 3-91; Avi Slifer 5-89; Tyler Vea 5-84, Ansel Cecil 1-33; Fort Vancouver: Jordan Vela 4-50; Mario Avalos-Eyler 2-49; Robert Bain 2-30; Brendan Birrel 3-28.