Prep football: Sophomore back shines as Mountain View rolls past Prairie

Eddie Richardson will get the experience of watching himself play on film this week.

And thanks to the Mountain View offensive line, there will be a lot of watch.

The sophomore got an opportunity to shine on the varsity, rushing for 110 yards on 18 carries and helping the Thunder defeat Prairie 44-28 in a Class 3A Greater St. Helens League game Friday at McKenzie Stadium.

“I was proud of the effort of the team,” Mountain View coach Adam Mathieson said. “We had a lot of new people in there tonight. … Eddie is a sophomore, and he ran hard. He’ll get to see himself on game film next week. You don’t get to watch film when you play on JV. So it will be a great learning experience for him.”

After losing 31-0 to Camas last week, Mountain View wanted to establish itself early against the Falcons.

That is what the Thunder did on their first two possessions, driving 68 yards on both drives for touchdowns and an early 14-0 lead.

“Our game plan was pretty vanilla,” Mathieson said. “We didn’t have a lot of different formations. We just wanted to run the ball right at them.”

Richardson said: “Our offensive line did a great job. There was a whole lot of room to run.”

But Prairie proved to be resilient group, cutting the margin to 14-8. And the Falcons were in position to take the lead early in the second quarter, but Mountain View stopped a Prairie drive at the Thunder 7 and a 29 yard field goal attempt was blocked.

Mountain View then drove 80 yards to regain control and extend its lead to 21-8 on Riley O’Dell’s 1-yard touchdown run. Trailing 24-8 at halftime, Prairie opened the second half by recovering an onside kick.

But Mountain View came up with an interception on Prairie’s first play from scrimmage. Four plays later, Mountain View extended its lead to 31-8 on a 23-yard touchdown pass play from O’Dell to Sterling Reynolds. Reynolds finished with three catches for 80 yards.

But Prairie still wasn’t done.

Prairie quarterback Colin Seitz connected with David Taylor on 73-yard touchdown pass play and a 33-yard scoring pass play to Cecil to cut the margin to 31-21 late in third quarter.

Seitz finished with 345 yards on 29-of-46 passing and four touchdowns, giving him 13 on the season. Cecil finished with 11 catches for 104 yards, and Taylor had 7 catches for 124 yards.

“Prairie is a good team,” Mathieson said. “They throw a lot at you. And (Seitz) is an outstanding quarterback.”

But the Thunder regained control with a 65-yard touchdown drive — all on the ground — and Mountain View led 38-21 early in the fourth.

“This was a shout-out game for us,” O’Dell said. “We wanted to let people know that we aren’t a weak team. We’re not done. This is a long season.”

After routing Evergreen in Week 1 then getting blown out by Camas last week, the Thunder know not to get carried away by the victory.

“We’ve got a lot things to work on still, but we’ll take a win any way we can,” said Michael Rivers, who rushed for 104 yards on 17 carries.

Mathieson echoed that sentiment.

“We don’t measure ourselves by the scoreboard,” he said. “We’ve got to keep working to get better. But we did enough tonight to leave with a smile on our face.”

MOUNTAIN VIEW 44, PRAIRIE 28

Prairie 8 0 13 8—28

Mountain View 14 10 7 13—44

First quarter

MV — Michael Rivers 13 run (Chavo Camargo kick)

MV — Sterling Reynolds 9 run (Camargo kick)

P — Ansel Cecil 3 pass from Colin Seitz (Cecil pass from Jesse Zalk)

Second quarter

MV — Riley O’Dell 1 run (Camargo kick)

MV — Camargo 20 FG

Third quarter

MV— Reynolds 23 pass from O’Dell (Camargo kick)

P — David Taylor 73 pass from Seitz (pass failed)

P — Cecil 33 pass from Seitz (Max Reimer kick)

Fourth quarter

MV — Reynolds 18 run (Camargo kick)

P — Cecil 6 pass from Seitz (Reimer kick)

MV — Connor Atchison 14 run (kick blocked)

Individual statistics

Rushing — Prairie: Jesse Zalk 3-24, Tyler Duncan 1-5, Tyler Vea 4-(-2), Colton Prestwich 3-(-5), Seitz 6-(-35). Mountain View: Eddie Richardson 18-110, Rivers 17-104, Reynolds 10-71, Atchison 6-30, O’Dell 5-11, Justin Rinta 1-0.

Passing — Prairie: Seitz 29-46-2-345; Mountain View: O’Dell 3-6-0-80. Receiving — Prairie: Cecil 11-104, Taylor 7-124, Zalk 3-74, Vea 4-35, Prestwich 2-12, Nick Gawley 1-(-4), Duncan 1-0; Heritage: Reynolds 3-80.