Prairie win, coupled with Hudson’s Bay loss removes the need for a tiebreaker
VANCOUVER — No tiebreaker necessary.
The Prairie Falcons secured the third and final playoff seed in the Class 3A Greater St. Helens League with a win over Evergreen and a Hudson’s Bay loss on the other side of town.
A.J. Dixson rushed for 130 yards and two touchdowns, and the Prairie defense nearly got the shutout in a 34-7 victory Friday at McKenzie Stadium.
Prairie earned a winning regular season with the win, and more importantly, got to 3-2 in league play. Hudson’s Bay lost to Kelso on Friday, dropping the Eagles to 2-3.
It is the first playoff berth for Prairie since 2011.
“This is a really big deal for us,” senior Trajveion Douglas said. “When we got here as freshmen, the whole atmosphere of the team was soft. Our biggest dream was to make the playoffs. We’ve been going hard the whole year for that.”
Mountain View had clinched the league title last week. Kelso, at 4-1, finished second.
Devante Clayton broke a scoreless tie in the second quarter with a 14-yard touchdown run. Dixson made it 13-0 before the half on a short TD run.
Prairie scored less than two minutes into the second half. Bret McGuire scored on a 4-yard touchdown run. Minutes later, Dixson got free on a 41-yard tourhcodnw run. Clayton capped the Prairie scoring with a 15-yard run toward the end of the third quarter.
Evergreen avoided the shutout on a 9-yard pass from Ryan Blaize to Isaijah Griggs in the closing minutes of the game.
Up until then, it was all Prairie defense.
Douglas had 2.5 sacks, including one on the final play of the first half to thwart an Evergreen scoring opportunity.
“It was so awesome. The defense was so fired up,” Douglas said. “If I missed a tackle, I could count on one of my teammates to have my back.”
PRAIRIE 34, EVERGREEN 7
Prairie 0 13 21 0 — 34
Evergreen 0 0 0 7 — 7
Second quarter
Pra — Devante Clayton 14 run (Taylor Lawhead kick)
Pra — A.J. Dixson 4 run (kick blocked)
Third quarter
Pra — Bret McGuire 4 run (kick failed)
Pra — Dixson 41 run (Nolan Mickenham pass from Zachery Brown)
Pra — Clayton 15 run (Lawhead kick)
Fourth quarter
Eve — Isaijah Griggs 9 pass from Ryan Blaize (Eli Del-Angel kick)
Individual statistics
RUSHING: Prairie — McGuire 12-69, A.J. Dixson 11-130, Clayton 9-70, Zack Wright 3-34, Brown 1-1. Evergreen — Eli Vaa-leiataua 24-96, Ryan Blaize 6-(minus 41), Gideon Macabeo 3-24, Trent Heman 1-3, Zyell Griffin 3-0.
PASSING: Prairie — A.J. Dixson 11-19-1-104, McGuire 0-1-0-0. Evergreen — Blaize 12-19-1-122.
RECEIVING: Prairie — Nolan Mickenham 3-36, McGuire 1-(minus 5), Zeke Dixson 4-33, Bryce Cordon 1-6, Lawhead 2-34. Evergreen — Macabeo 1-13, Luke Allen 4-31, Zyell Griffin 5-59, Jaylen Fite 1-10, Griggs 1-9.
