Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Tigers Overcome For Win
PRAIRIE GROVE OVERCOMES FLAGS AND TAUNTING DURING 48-13 WIN
STILWELL, OKLA. — The respect Stilwell coach Don Harrison has for Prairie Grove’s Danny Abshier shone through clearly on a pair of botched fourth down plays during Friday’s 48-13 Tiger win.
Coming into the nonconference contest at Stilwell, Harrison, who coached at Lincoln from 2015-2019 when the Wolves were in the 4A-1 Conference competing annually against Prairie Grove, made no bones about knowing what he and the Indians were up against.
“They [Prairie Grove] are going to be ready to go. Danny Abshier does an amazing job. His assistants do a great job. They’re going to be ready and we’ve got to be ready and we’ve got to match it from the get go,” Harrison said after Stilwell’s 14-12 junior high at Tiger Stadium Thursday.
On Friday, Stilwell scored on its third series sustaining an 11-play, 80-yard drive showcasing the kind offense Harrison is noted for to trim Prairie Grove’s lead to 14-7 on freshman Colby Philpott’s 1-yard run 30 seconds into the second quarter. Prairie Grove came right back with a 4-play, 71-yard drive capped by Knox Laird’s 18-yard touchdown pass to sophomore tight end Matthew Velasco. Paytin Higgins kicked the Tigers back to a 14-point lead of 21-7 on the extrapoint play.
Stilwell desperately needed to answer but was ineffective running the ball against Tiger Defensive Coordinator Craig Laird’s No. 1 unit. Not until the second unit was inserted midway through the third did Stilwell find success moving the ball on the ground with Philpott carrying 11 times for 73 yards on a 91-yard drive kept alive by a fourth down roughing the punter personal foul. The Indians none-the-less came away empty when Prairie Grove junior Landyn Washausen intercepted a pass in the end zone.
Subtract the final drive and the Indians rushed for 40 yards on 24 attempts. The stalwart Tiger defense forced them to the air and one dimensional teams can’t consistently sustain drives every time. This was the case with Stilwell quarterback, Chase Stephens (14-of-27 for 155 yards, 1 touchdown and 3 interceptions), throwing three straight incompletions from his own 37 including a failed fourth down attempt.
Prairie Grove made them pay for giving up prime field position by unleashing an aerial attack of its own with senior quarterback Knox Laird, son of coach Craig Laird, throwing a short flare pass to classmate Cade Grant who was off to the races for a touchdown. Knox Laird finished 6-of-8 for 90 with 2 touchdowns and no interceptions.
Just like that the Tigers led 27-7.
The teams traded touchdowns with Stilwell scoring on Geremiah Noisewater’s 20-yard reception from Stephens. The kick failed leaving Stilwell in a 27-13 deficit with a lot of time, 6:19 remaining in the first half.
Prairie Grove took the ensuing kickoff running 3:27 off the clock and scoring on senior fullback Foster Layman’s second touchdown run to open up a 34-13 halftime lead.
Stilwell received the second half kickoff and quickly found themselves facing fourth-and-five from its own 21. Noisewater lined up in the shotgun on what was probably a trick play that never developed because he fumbled the snap and was tackled for a 9-yard loss by a host of alert Tigers.
Prairie Grove took over at the Stilwell 12 and Grant punched the ball in from the one boosting the disparity on the scoreboard to 41-13 with 10:14 to go in the third quarter.
Stilwell never recovered from its two fourth down miscues and the Tigers tacked on Austin Whetsell’s 41-yard touchdown run with Kade Walker kicking the PAT with 3:15 left in the third quarter. Paytin Higgins directed that drive at quarterback and completed an 11-yard pass to Dalton Frazier to convert third-and-10.
Prairie Grove scored twice in
the first quarter on short runs by Layman and Grant to capture an early 14-0 lead.
There were a number of incidents where a Stilwell ball carrier threw the football in the face of a defender, who had just tackled him, which were seemingly ignored while flags were thrown against the Tigers on the same play.
Prairie Grove was penalized 13 times for 160 yards compared to six flags over the Oklahoma-based team for 60 yards. A full 60 minutes of game time played out on the field with no sportsmanship rule in effect.
“There’s not a mercy rule in Oklahoma. We’re doing well,” Abshier said. “The penalties are killing us. I am so pleased with our team because of what happened with all the penalties.”
The Tigers kept their self discipline and refrained from retaliating while their coach pleaded his case.
Abshier shared the gist of his conversations with officiating crew, asking the referee, “There’s not the same penalties on the other team either?”
According to Abshier, the response was “We’re calling what we see.”
To which Abshier said, “Well, you need to see the other side, too, man.”
“I saw some other things going on where our guys could have lost their cool. They maintained their composure the whole time and I’m pleased with how they produced tonight. That’s all I can say is they did well,” Abshier said.
The Tigers passed the character test last week, this Friday they encounter their first conference test taking on Green Forest at Prairie Grove’s Tiger Den Stadium Friday. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.