The Prairie City-Monroe football team lost a heartbreaker on Friday night, falling just a few plays short in a 13-12 defeat at Class 2A fourth-ranked West Marshall. The game was streamed live on kniakrls.com (KRLS3).
It was basically a tale of two halves as PCM dominated early and led 12-0 at the break. West Marshall controlled the second half and stopped the Mustangs’ final drive on downs with 24 seconds left. After nearly completing a touchdown pass on third-and-four from the 21, PCM set up a fourth-down screen to Adrien Robbins, who was tackled two yards shy of the first down.
The Trojans improved to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in 2A District 7 while the Mustangs dropped to 3-3 overall and 2-1 in district play.
PCM head coach Greg Bonnett says that his players were hurting after the game, but he is confident they will bounce back more determined than ever in the final two regular season games against Chariton and Roland-Story.
“Our guys aren’t going to quit. They’re not going to give up or anything like that. We’ve just got to get back to work,” Bonnett said. “West Marshall is a good team. They’re heavily ranked and we’re heavily not ranked, so to be in a one-point game with them I guess is good.
“I don’t want to trade any of my guys for anybody. These dudes are going to battle back and by the end of the season we’re going to be a pretty good football team.”
Senior Gavin Fenton set the tone for PCM’s outstanding first half by returning the opening kickoff past midfield. Quarterback Gavin VanGorp scored from four yards out barely two minutes into the contest and Robbins, who ripped off several big runs early, added a seven-yard TD run early in the second quarter. A missed extra point and a failed two-point conversion try, however, kept the score at 12-0.
West Marshall was stopped three-and-out on its first four possessions of the night but began to gain some momentum late in the first half and rode the running and passing of senior quarterback Peyton Hart in the second half. Hart connected with Jace Eich on a 15-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter and scored on a four-yard run with 5:02 remaining to put the Trojans up 13-12.
Up to that point, PCM had run just six plays in the second half, but the Mustangs mounted a late drive after loading up the backfield and switching 210-pound senior August Stock to quarterback. Stock had several powerful runs in the final minutes, but the drive was ultimately stopped and West Marshall took a knee to run out the clock.
PCM will host Chariton next Friday at 7:30 p.m.