Praire City/Burnt Rivers Maison Teel extends into the endzone during his teams game with Joseph on Friday, Sep. 8, 2023.

PRAIRIE CITY — The Prairie City/Burnt River Panther football team relied on someone with a familiar name to take them over the hump in their dogfight against the Joseph Eagles on Friday, Sept. 8 in Prairie City — Teel.

Panther running back Maison Teel punched the ball in from a short distance with just 5:00 left in regulation to give the Panthers some breathing room and allow them to hold off the Eagles for an 18-6 league victory.

It wasn’t all easy after the Teel score however. The Panthers needed two additional fourth down stops in the final quarter to hold on and send the Eagles home with a loss.

The first fourth down stop came right after Teel’s touchdown with 4:00 left in the game. The second came with just 1:28 left in the contest and all but ended any Eagle hopes of a comeback bid.

“It’s a team we look forward to playing— we love playing Joseph. They play hard, usually an equal matchup to us,” Prairie City/Burnt River head football coach Nick Thompson said.

Quarterback Wes Voigt completed ten of fourteen passes for 108 years and a touchdown. Five Panthers caught passes in the game with Tucker Wright catching the touchdown pass and finishing with 22 yards receiving.

Teel had a monster game on the ground, carrying the ball 27 times and finishing with 164 yards and a touchdown. Wright carried the ball four times and finished with 28 yards rushing.

“We knew that we were going to face a passing attack. I really was impressed with our guys and their ability too improve on some things that have been weaknesses for us, which was pass defense,” Thompson said.

“Especially when you’re going against a dynamic team like Joseph,” Thompson added.

With Joseph in the rear-view mirror, The Panthers move on to an unexpected showdown between undefeated Grant County teams when they travel to Monument for a matchup with the Tigers Thursday, Sept. 14.

With Dayville/Monument/Long Creek’s improvement and Prairie City/Burnt River’s consistency, the contest has a big game feel to it.

“I’m happy for them and the direction that their program has gone. What coach Carlin has done over there is a testament that you just keep moving forward — they’ve had plenty of opportunities to give up and to find excuses for things but instead they found a way to get better and compete and here they are, they’re 2-0 and we’re 2-0,” Thompson said.

The game between Prairie City/Burnt River and Dayville/Monument/Long Creek will kick-off at 3 p.m.