Cedar Rapids Prairie falls to No. 6 Cedar Falls 20-17

CEDAR FALLS - There will be a lot of "what if" talk surrounding the Cedar Rapids Prairie football team.

The Hawks dominated in many phases during Friday night's game against No. 6 Cedar Falls.

"There are a lot of big moments that come up in a game," said Prairie Coach Kyle Knock after his team dropped a gut-wrenching 20-17 decision. "When you don't complete drives inside the red zone, those are big moments."

Prairie (4-3) lost the ball three times inside the Tigers' 20 and saw a 22-yard field goal sail wide.

"Until we learn how to win those big moments, this is going to be the result," Knock said. "That said, you have to give credit to Cedar Falls. They are a very talented football team and they make you work for everything."

Despite the mistakes, Prairie found a way to battle back in the fourth quarter after falling behind 20-3 on a Carsen Gary 14-yard scoring run on an end around late in the third quarter.

Even after the normally reliable Junior Boxa saw a 22-yard field goal attempt misfire to start the fourth quarter, Prairie kept fighting. The defense, led by David Fason, shut down the Cedar Falls offense in the fourth quarter. The Hawks blocked a punt near the goal line which Kayden Phelps fell on for a score, making it 20-10 with just over six minutes left.

Prairie got the ball back and Fason was a man among boys. His 45-yard catch-and-run set the Hawks up at the Cedar Falls 9, but on the next play he lost the ball on a handoff exchange and Cedar Falls recovered.

Fason, who finished unofficially with 13 catches for 166 yards, took on an even bigger role with starting running back Dawson Kahl limited to one carry due to an ankle injury.

Knock had nothing but praise for the effort of his standout senior.

"He's our best football player," said the Prairie coach. "If our best player loses the ball in that situation, you live with that. He battled all night on both sides of the ball. He's a warrior and we just have to keep finding ways to get him the ball."

After the turnover, Fason made two big stops on defense, giving the Hawks a short field. Cael Kongshaug hit Drew Bennis on a 7-yard scoring toss with 34 seconds remaining, but the Tigers recovered the onside kick and were able to run out the clock.

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Prairie's defense held Cedar Falls to 143 yards unofficially, but the turnovers and a couple of big kick returns gave the Tigers several short fields.

The playoffs are still a possibility for the Hawks. They host another Top 10 team in Iowa City West at John Wall Field.

"I'm excited to see what this team can still accomplish over the next two weeks," Knock said. "We never quit tonight. We knew going into this week that we would have to earn everything. That won't change next week."

Cedar Falls hits the road to play at Linn-Mar.

Cedar Falls 20

Cedar Rapids Prairie 17

(At Cedar Falls)

CRP CF

Cedar Rapids Prairie 3 0 0 14 — 17

Cedar Falls 3 7 10 0 — 20

CF — FG Cael Harms 44

CRP — FG Junior Boxa 34

CF — Ian Fuchtman 1 run (Harms kick)

CF — Carsen Gary 14 run (Harms kick)

CF — FG Harms 34

CRP — Blocked punt recovered in the end zone by Kayden Phelps (Boxa kick)

CRP — Drew Bennis 7 pass from Cael Kongshaug (Boxa kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING - Cedar Rapids Prairie: Dawson Kahl 1-2, BJay Bush Jr 21-88, Cael Kongshaug 1-3 , David Fason 3-8, Dane Mai 1-2 . Cedar Falls: Ian Fuchtman 25-89, Leyton Wolf 4-(minus 10), Carsen Gary 2-10, Anthony Pattee 1-(minus-1). Team: 1-(minus-1)

PASSING - Cedar Rapids Prairie: Cael Kongshaug 23-35-1-222, David Fason 0-1-0-(minus2). Cedar Falls: Leyton Wolf 5-11-0-66.

RECEIVING - Cedar Rapids Prairie: David Fason 13-166, Drew Bennis 2-17, Bennett Koch 3-15, BJay Bush Jr 4-18, Colt Hobson 1-3, Conner Bistrick 1-1. Cedar Falls: Will Remmert 2-47, Carsen Gary 1-9, Ian Fuchtman 2-7.