Harper's late kickoff return gives Prairie 35-28 win over Hempstead (w/video)

CEDAR RAPIDS - Welcome back to the lineup, Demetrius Harper. Welcome back to the win column, Cedar Rapids Prairie.

“Coach just said to go out there and get it done for the seniors,” Harper said after his 88-yard kickoff return with 1:41 left got it done for Prairie on Senior Night, 35-28, over Dubuque Hempstead at John Wall Field.

An explosive junior wide receiver with tons of athletic ability, Harper broke his collarbone in Prairie's second game. He thought he was done for the season, though last night proved otherwise.

He scored on an 8-yard sweep midway through the fourth quarter to put Prairie up, 28-21. After Hempstead tied it, Harper found a crease and sprinted past everyone down the sideline to make the Hawks (2-6) winners for a second consecutive week.

“It's been kind of tough with the injury,” Harper said. “But Coach told me to keep things positive, keep my head up ... I didn't expect to play at all. They told me I was done.”

Prairie Coach Mike Morrissey obviously is glad that wasn't true.

“It was just nice getting him back,” Morrissey said. “I know he missed it tremendously. For him to be able to come back and make an impact right away is huge for him, as far as a confidence standpoint. Knowing that he is capable of basically doing whatever he works for.”

Prairie won with sophomore Dylan Kuchemann making his varsity debut at quarterback. Kuchemann subbed for injured Jace Hanna (even wearing his jersey, number 14) and threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Jarred Edmonds in the first half.

The Hawks extended a 14-7 halftime lead with a Brayton Carlson 53-yard run off a motion sweep early in the third. Carlson's 71-yard wide-receiver pass to Austin Dellamuth set up a Cameron Rathje 4-yard TD run in the final minute of the first half.

Layton Fritsch had 170 yards rushing and four TDs for Hempstead (2-6), three in the second half. His 3-yard blast tied things with 1:56 left.

It didn't stay tied for long.

“Austin Reutzel had one phenomenal block,” Harper said. “And I just had to take the hole.”

"You just have a special feeling when he's back there," Morrissey said. "That something great could happen. Once he gets past that first wave, he's got a little bit of speed."

Carlson had a brilliant all-around game, actually leading Prairie in rushing yards (106) and passing yards (71). He also had a huge interception defensively with 1:34 to go that all but sealed the victory.

Hempstead did get just inside Prairie territory in the dying seconds, but quarterback Luke Ploessl was sacked on the final play and fumbled. A nice victory for first-year coach Morrissey, whose wife, Jessica, is due with the couple's second child any time.

"This is big for us," Morrissey said. "It's the total effort and attitude that we've preached the entire time. We've worked hard in practice, I thought we had a good week with that. We preached how important this was to our seniors, for our younger guys to step up and make plays for them. Be accountable to their teammates. It was another nice week for us. We're just really proud of our guys."

Here's the game boxscore and a very short video interview with Harper:

TEAM STATISTICS

Dbq. Hemp.

CR Prairie

First downs

21

15

Rushes-yards

50 - 138

35 - 218

Passing yards

136

141

Comp-Att-Int

12 - 24 - 2

5 - 11 - 1

Total yards

274

359

Fumbles-lost

1 - 1

1 - 1

Punts-average

4 - 35.8

5 - 36.0

Penalties-yards

2 - 30

5 - 46

Rushing:

 Dbq. Hemp. –

Layton Fritsch 23-170 ,

Jacob Hodge 14-67 ,

Mark Owens 4-5 ,

Graham Houselog 1--2 ,

Luke Ploessl 8--38

 CR Prairie –

Brayton Carlson 6-106 ,

Zach Witte 9-36 ,

Demetrius Harper 5-30 ,

Cameron Rathje 8-28 ,

Dylan Kuchemann 6-22 ,

Austin Dellamuth 1--4

Passing:

 Dbq. Hemp. –

Luke Ploessl 12-24-2-136

 CR Prairie –

Brayton Carlson 1-1-0-71 ,

Dylan Kuchemann 4-10-1-70

Receiving:

 Dbq. Hemp. –

Ben Goerdt 4-49 ,

Alex Smith 5-43 ,

Connor Ehlers 2-26 ,

Layton Fritsch 1-18

 CR Prairie –

Austin Dellamuth 1-71 ,

Jarred Edmonds 2-39 ,

Carson Goodale 1-22 ,

Tristan Beyer 1-9

Dbq. Hemp.

7

7

14

–

28

CR Prairie

7

7

7

14

–

35

DH-Layton Fritsch 2 run (Chris Francis kick)

CRP-Jarred Edmonds 28 pass from Dylan Kuchemann (Austin Reutzel kick)

CRP-Austin Rathje 4 run (Reutzel kick)

CRP-Brayton Carlson 53 run (Reutzel kick)

DH-Fritsch 33 run (Francis kick)

DH-Fritsch 6 run (Francis kick)

CRP-Demetrius Harper 8 run (Reutzel kick)

DH-Fritsch 3 run (Francis kick)

CRP-Harper 88 kickoff return (Reutzel kick)