A pair of Class 2A football powers will renew their rivalry tonight when Prairie City-Monroe travels to State Center to battle West Marshall at 7:30 p.m. The game can be heard live on kniakrls.com (KRLS3) with pregame coverage starting at 6:30.

Both teams are 2-0 in District 7 and have one common opponent in Iowa Falls-Alden. The Cadets lost to PCM 42-0 in Week 4 and were defeated by West Marshall 42-14 last Friday. The Mustangs are 3-2 overall following last week’s muddy 16-7 win over Albia, while the Trojans are 5-0 and listed fourth in BCMoore’s latest 2A rankings.

PCM coach Greg Bonnett expects another competitive matchup with West Marshall.

“It’s always a really good game,” he said. “They’re going to be really well coached, they’re going to be a physical team – running fast and guys that can make plays – so any Friday night you get a chance to play some competition like that you want to be on your best, that’s for sure.”

Bonnett is happy with the progression of the Mustangs through Week 5, noting a dramatic improvement in tackling since early on and an overall great attitude and work ethic.

“They are the type of guys that enjoy being around each other and they really, really enjoy playing football, so that makes it easy to coach,” Bonnett said.

PCM is 2-0 since sophomore Gavin VanGorp took over the starting quarterback duties. VanGorp has completed 17-of-23 passes for 213 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for 122 and one TD. Adrien Robbins, another sophomore, leads the Mustangs with 465 yards rushing and five touchdowns, averaging 7.4 yards per carry. The team’s top two tacklers are William Vanderpool and Donovan Nickelson, who have combined to register 11 tackles for loss.

West Marshall also has a dynamic one-two punch offensively in quarterback Peyton Hart and running back Ben Gonzalez. Hart has passed for 777 yards and 11 TDs with four interceptions while running for 424 and nine scores. He has also run back a kickoff 91 yards. Gonzalez has carried the ball 99 times for 763 yards and three TDs and top receiver Grahm Nason has totaled 382 yards and seven TDs.

Coach Bonnett says he doesn’t see many weaknesses when watching West Marshall on film. He says that sound tackling and accurate blocking strikes will be critical on Friday, along with winning the turnover margin.

“To beat these guys, the thing that we’re going to have to do is really, really take care of the football,” Bonnett said. “If we can capitalize off any sort of turnover I think that’s going to be huge, but we’ve definitely got to take care of the football. And I think a lot of it is going to come down to special teams.”

PCM has lost two of the last three meetings with West Marshall, including a 30-7 decision last fall.