ELDRIDGE – Standing your ground in the steady rain and slick field conditions was half the battle Friday night. A deer would have trouble staying on four legs in that monsoon.

And the Cedar Rapids Prairie defense couldn't keep its footing or keep up with North Scott's elusive Brown brothers in the Hawks' frustrating unsuccessful attempt to end a two-game losing streak and get their season back on track.

Quarterback Kier Brown and tailback Kiel Brown rumbled through the Prairie defense at will while commanding North Scott to a 27-14 weather-shortened victory at Lancer Stadium.

Lighting, and a ton of it, put the game on ice with 53 seconds left and North Scott driving inside the Prairie 5-yard line in the third quarter. After at least four dozen confirmed lightning strikes pushed the game's earliest possible re-start time to 11:30 p.m. and with the Hawks already having lost three starters to injury, coaches opted to call the game in the name of player safety, giving North Scott (1-3) its first victory of the year.

“This is pretty crazy,” Prairie coach Mark Bliss said. “I've never seen anything like that.”

The steady and sometimes heavy storms that deluged eastern Iowa on Friday led school officials to move kickoff up 75 minutes to 6 p.m. in order to beat a second wave of storms that swept through the area later Friday night. The early start didn't come fast enough to beat the lightning.

The weathered and weary Prairie defense was hoping to shake off two failing grade performances in which they had surrendered 97 points the last two weeks. The Hawks (1-3) opened with an impressive red zone stand, repelling North Scott's opening drive after Prairie's failure to cover the opening kickoff set up the Lancers at the Prairie 21.

North Scott advanced only to the Prairie 16, but that was the only time the Lancers (coming off a 42-0 blanking by Kennedy) would be slowed in the first half. North Scott scored touchdowns on its next four possessions en route to building a 27-14 halftime advantage.

North Scott's offensive generals were the Brown twins, who, running deceptive jet sweeps to perfection, crashed and bashed through the Prairie defensive line and secondary, which labored heavily to corral them short of both first down yardage and the end zone.

Kier Brown walked into the end zone on a 2-yard QB keeper to give the Lancers a 7-0 lead with 2:53 left in the first quarter. Sixty-eight seconds later, Brown was dashing back to the end zone on an electric 53-yard run in which he broke two tackles. Prairie defenders struggled to read the smoke and mirrors misdirection the Brown twins were running at them.

"They do a good job of hiding the football and elongating runs,” Bliss said. “It's assignment football. It's like option football. You've got to be sound. If you're not in the right place at the right time it can get ugly."

Brown made it a first-half touchdown hat trick with a 36-yard breakaway touchdown in the second quarter, and Kiel Brown added a 1-yard end zone break-in with 7:56 to go in the second.

Kier Brown blazed for 196 yards on 21 carries. Kiel Brown backed him with 116 rushing yards on 19 touches.

“All we had to do was read and do your job,” Prairie star Jalen Rima said. “We got ahead of ourselves and moved on with what we thought was going to happen (on plays) instead of doing what we were supposed to.”

The now-routine, dazzling offensive fireworks of Rima weren't enough to overcome the Hawks' defensive struggles before lightning struck. Rima delivered his usual magic, breaking a tackle and completely reversing field on a 60-yard wowing first-quarter touchdown run and reeling in a 74-yard over-the-top second-quarter TD strike from Tyler Nunemaker off blown coverage.

But Prairie's secondary helped keep Prairie's comeback attempt at bay, shutting down the dangerous Nunemaker (who was just 1-of-7 passing) outside of his 74-yard first-quarter TD hookup to Rima. Nate Wilkerson and Austin Simmons both killed Prairie first-half drives with interceptions.

“We had Nate take (Rima) and he took the challenge,” said Lancers coach Kevin Tippet, whose club out-gained Prairie 380-219. “We blew the coverage on the long touchdown pass, but the rest of the game Nate and the guys really challenged themselves and made some great plays on the ball.”

At 7:58 p.m., the lightning came, followed by even heavier rain, and the Hawks were forced to sit and wait, and wait, and ultimately wait until next week's district opener for a chance to get their season back on track.

“(Our record) is what it is,” Bliss said. “We'll deal with it and move on. We know district play begins next week and that's what we're going to focus on."

NORTH SCOTT 27, PRAIRIE 14

(Game suspended by lighting with 53 seconds left in 3rd quarter)

.                      CRP          NS

First downs            4           15

Rushes-yards  25-145    42-307

Passing yards        74          73

Comp-att-int      1-8-2    7-12-0

Fumbles-lost         1-0        2-1

Punts-avg           4-31      2-43

Penalties-yards    8-54       5-31

Prairie              7  0 0 - 14

North Scott   13 14 0 - 27

Scoring Plays

NS - Kier Brown 2 run (TJ Kilian kick)

P - Jalen Rima 60 run (Collett kick)

NS - Kier Brown 60 run (kick failed)

NS - Kier Brown 36 run (Kilian kick)

P - Rima 74 pass from Tyler Nunemaker (Collett kick)

NS - Kiel Brown 1 run (Kilian kick)

Individual statistics

Passing

Prairie – Nunemaker 1-8-2, 74.

North Scott – Kier Brown 7-12-0, 73.

Rushing

Prairie – Jalen Rima 2-62, Trevor Northrup 10-59, Nunemaker 10-18, Jake Pinter 2-5, H. Johnson 1-1.

North Scott – Kier Brown 21-196, Kiel Brown 19-116, Cole Rollinger 2-7.

Receiving

Prairie – Rima 1-74.

North Scott – Cole Rollinger 2-22, Austin Simmons 1-25, Trevor Kuehl 1-13, Tevin Meier 1-10, Kiel Brown 1-(-4).