MONUMENT – The Panthers were the faster cats last Friday.

The Prairie City football team outran Monument/Long Creek/Dayville Tigers in a 66-30 victory Friday, Oct. 25. The Panthers utilized a quick senior backfield to break away from the Tiger defenders.

Colton Schulze led the Prairie City attack with 200 yards rushing. Schulze specializes in runs to the outside which make use of his speed. Brandon Crisler wasn’t far behind Schulze with 190 yards and Panther quarterback Dylan Hendriksen had 100 yards of his own.

Schulze and Crisler each had three rushing touchdowns. Hendriksen ran for two touchdowns and Marshall Mecham caught one.

Monument/Long Creek/Dayville coach Skip Inscore said Prairie City’s running game was tough to defend.

“Defensively we had no answer for their speed,” Inscore said. “We didn’t respond to the game plan. I take responsibility for that. I didn’t have the kids prepared. The kids played as hard as they could. Looking back we came into the game trying a new defense the kids weren’t comfortable with.”

Prairie City had 580 total yards to Monument/Long Creek/Dayville’s 240 in the game.

However, the game was close at the start. Prairie City scored first, but the Tigers answered and the score was 8-6 in favor of the Panthers in the opening minutes. The Tigers got a big stop on the Panthers and put together a drive, but were unable to score. Prairie City scored on their next drive and never let the Tigers close the gap.

Prairie City coach Scott Hoberg said although the Panthers won, the Tigers have improved greatly since last season. Prairie City beat Monument/Long Creek/Dayville 62-7 last year.

“The Tigers are playing together a lot better than last year,” Hoberg said. “I think if you look at next year both of our teams are going to be moving up in the conference. They played as well as I’ve seen them play. I have to give special recognition to Kyle Hand. He’s a great football player. They put him all over. He was on the offensive line, full back, wherever he was he did a good job. He’s a good leader for that team.”

The Friday win breaks a four-game losing streak for the Panthers that started against Adrian Sept. 26 at home. They will finish their season against Burnt River at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31, at home.

Monument/ Long Creek/Dayville will end their season at 2 p.m. the same day, on the road in Mitchell against Mitchell/Spray.