Healed Bonifas too much for Prairie

CEDAR RAPIDS – Entering his first season as the football coach at Cedar Rapids Prairie, most of the preseason talk centered on Mark Bliss' single-wing offense.

Through three games, the offense has been humming just fine. Now it's time to shore up the defense.

Dubuque Senior quarterback Lee Bonifas sparked a 35-point outburst in the second half and the Rams ran over Prairie, 42-28, in a Class 4A non-district game Friday night at John Wall Field.

'Things just kind of started rolling,” said Bonifas, who ran for three scores and threw for another. 'I kept feeling good, and it all just worked out in the end.”

Bonifas was not expected to play after suffering an injury to his throwing shoulder in last week's 35-17 win at Waterloo West. But with his team trailing 7-0 and without a first down in the first quarter, Bonifas charged onto the field and drove the Rams 92 yards in 15 plays, scoring on a 14-yard keeper just before halftime.

'We got big push from the line all night,” Bonifas said. 'Our backs like Jacob Osterberger were running the ball real well, and we were hitting big plays with our receivers.”

Osterberger ran for 139 yards. Bonifas threw for 128, including a 63-yard touchdown to Shane Sweeney. Defensive back Collin Seymour ran the second-half kickoff back 80 yards for a touchdown to break the 7-7 tie, then clinched the two-score victory with 4:22 left on a 44-yard interception return when Prairie went for it on 4th-and-7 from its 38.

'They were doing a good job, doing the inside zone-read,” Bliss said. 'Their quarterback did a nice job and they had a couple of play-action passes on crucial down-and-distances that allowed them to move the chains.”

The teams combined for five third-quarter touchdowns. Prairie tied the game on three occasions in the second half behind receiver Jalen Rima, who caught five passes for 116 yards and a touchdown. Rima also scored on a 27-yard reverse, but the Hawks never led after the initial score of the game.

Running back Trevor Northrup ran for 74 yards and two scores for Prairie (1-2), which travels to North Scott next week.

Dubuque Senior (2-1) hosts rival Dubuque Hempstead.

Dubuque Senior 42

C.R. Prairie 28

AT JOHN WALL FIELD

DS CRP

First downs 14 16

Rushes-yards 44-223 42 - 239

Passing-yards 131 166

Comp-att-int 8-14-0 8-17-2

Punts-avg. 3-30.0 3-44.0

Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-1

Penalties-yards 3-15 2-10

Dubuque Senior 0 7 21 14-42

C.R. Prairie 7 0 14 7-28

CRP - Trevor Northrup 34 run (Joel Collett kick)

DS - Lee Bonifas 14 run (Ben Kubitz kick)

DS - Collin Seymour 80 kickoff return (Kubitz kick)

CRP - Jalen Rima 27 run (kick missed)

DS - Bonifas 3 run (Kubitz kick)

CRP - Rima 48 pass from Tyler Nunemaker (Hunter Johnson run)

DS - Shane Sweeney 63 pass from Bonifas (Kubitz kick)

CRP - Northrup 21 run (Collett kick)

DS - Bonifas 1 run (Kubitz kick)

DS - Seymour 44 interception return (Kubitz kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing - DS: Jacob Osterberger 27-139, Sam Schnee 7-46, Lee Bonifas 8-26, Nicholas Weber 1-7, Shane Sweeney 1-5, Dmitri Humpal-Griffin 1-3. CRP:

Trevor Northrup 12-74, Jalen Rima 4-53, Hunter Johnson 7-49, Tyler Nunemaker 15-39, Jake Pinter 3-21.

Passing - DS: Lee Bonifas 6-11-0-128, Dmitri Humpal-Griffin 2-3-0-3. CRP:

Tyler Nunemaker 8-17-2-166.

Receiving - DS: Shane Sweeney 3-91, Anthony Osterkamp 2-25, Kentarion Johnson 1-12, Collin Seymour 2-3. CRP:

Jalen Rima 5-116, Hunter Johnson 2-31, Joseph Meyer 1-19.

l Comments: douglas.miles@thegazette.com