Prairie High School - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

No.10 Xavier blanks Prairie, 14-0

Both Xavier and Prairie displayed offensive fireworks in their respective games during the opening week in high school football a week ago.

When they got together for the second game of the season on Friday night, the first half looked as if they were going to go out with a sizzle.

The two teams went back and forth, holding each other scoreless for almost two complete quarters. Then Xavier tailback Carter Valentine took his torch and started the show.

With nearly three minutes remaining in the first half, Valentine scurried for a 44-yard touchdown run that helped the 10th-ranked Saints defeat Prairie, 14-0, in a Mississippi Valley Conference game at Saints Field.

It was Xavier's second straight shutout, following a 28-0 conquest of Kennedy in Week 1.

Although Valentine was a workhorse and displayed tenacious running, he praised his offensive line for some of the school-bus size holes they were giving him.

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Tovey, Heald star as Warriors foil Prairie

Flynn Heald never panicked when A.J. Puk quit the Cedar Rapids Washington football team three weeks ago.

Heald and Puk are buddies, but he was confident Braedon Tovey could take over at quarterback and give the Warriors a chance to win games.

He was exactly right.

Tovey passed for 253 yards and two touchdowns Friday night as the Warriors spanked Cedar Rapids Prairie, 51-26, in the Mississippi Valley Conference opener on the new artificial turf at Prairie's John Wall Field.

Washington spoiled Mike Morrissey's debut as Prairie's head coach and served notice that it's still a dangerous team without Puk and injured tailback Will Griffin.

Heald caught nine balls for 238 yards and snared both of Tovey's TD passes as Washington rolled up 502 yards and 23 first downs.

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Morrissey is new bundle of energy at Prairie

Mike Morrissey bounced around from drill to drill Monday morning, high-fiving his players and yelling words of encouragement as preseason practice began at Cedar Rapids Prairie.

"Is that young guy the head coach?," a startled visitor to practice wanted to know.

Morrissey, 28, gets that a lot. He's the youngest head coach in the Metro area, but he's packed a lot of experience into a short period of time and is thrilled to be Prairie's new man.

"I love it," he said. "These people are smart, they have a great work ethic.

"I think they feed off of us as coaches. I really do," he said, explaining his high-energy approach. "We try to get them upbeat. If you're not running around trying to get kids better every day, it's not worth coming out here."

Morrissey succeeded Craig Jelinek, who retired after the 2010 campaign with a 106-96 record in 20 years. The Hawks appear to have quickly embraced their new coach.

"He's awesome," said junior Jace Hanna, one of the quarterbacks. "He's very excitable. He runs around with us, he teaches us a lot of new things."

Prairie finished 2-7 last season, so the new coach has work to do. The players seem receptive.

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Lions, Warriors and Hawks took shots at title

DES MOINES -- The Linn-Mar, Washington and Prairie boys track teams all made a run for the Class 4A state title Saturday, but one by one they all fell short.

It wasn't for lack of effort.

The drama began early Saturday when Prairie moved to the top of the team standings at the state track meet when Kyle Stocker finished second in the 800 meter run.

In the very next race, Linn-Mar grabbed the lead in the tight standings when it placed second in the shuttle hurdle relay to score eight big points.

And on the next race after that, Washington tied Linn-Mar for the top when Will Griffin and Alex Carr finished 2-3 in the 100 meter dash to collect 14 points.

That tie was quickly broken when Kyle Dunn won the 110 high hurdles for Linn-Mar and Brandon Ophoff finished fifth, giving the Lions 14 points in one race and 48 overall.

Linn-Mar held the lead for two more races, but Cedar Falls nudged ahead by winning the 4x100 relay in the next-to-last event of the day, leaving the Lions out of bullets and ending the drama.

Cedar Falls won the Class 4A title, but the Metro was well represented in the boys standings. Linn-Mar finished third, Washington placed fourth, Prairie came in sixth and Kennedy was 10th in Dennis Roloff's final season as head coach.

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