(Wheatfield, IN) - After being pummeled by New Prairie to begin sectional play last year, Kankakee Valley hosted Friday night’s second round matchup looking for revenge. They almost got it.
New Prairie’s offense and defense looked promising in the first half, then fizzled in the second. On the Cougars’ second drive, 265-pound senior lineman John Klosinski, lining up in the backfield, rumbled in for the game’s first score. Constant pressure by New Prairie’s defense kept Kankakee Valley off balance for most of the night. A 34-yard touchdown run by sophomore Reed Robinson put New Prairie up 14-0 going into halftime.
Following a third-quarter stalemate, Kankakee Valley found themselves at New Prairie’s 15-yard line, thanks to two concurrent personal foul penalties. Two plays later, KV scored their first points. A 21-yard touchdown run by senior quarterback Marshall Kmiecik seemed to put the game out of reach with 5:48 left to play. But New Prairie gave Kankakee Valley favorable field position, and the host Kougars scored two touchdowns in under two minutes, tying the game, forcing overtime, stunning the crowd.
A cold rain blew in as the teams prepared to trade shots at the end zone from the 10-yard line. On New Prairie’s first play, Kmiecik found just enough running room to make it to the two, before being stood up by a KV defender. With a strong second effort and little nudge by a hustling offensive lineman, Kmiecik willed his way into the end zone for the go-ahead score. New Prairie’s defense stonewalled Kankakee Valley on their overtime drive. A fourth-down snap sailed over the KV quarterback’s head and quashed their hopes of an upset.
Despite pulling out the win, head coach Casey McKim couldn’t hide his disappointment afterwards. “The biggest thing offensively is we struggled for far too long. We had some big, explosive plays, but we weren’t consistent enough,” he said. “I always say, the best lessons are learned after a win, but there’s no question we need to play significantly better to reach the goals that we hope to reach this year.”
New Prairie mustered just enough offense to win. Kmiecik and Robinson put up identical rushing numbers— 103 yards on 14 carries. But Kmiecik completed only two of six passes for a total of seven yards, and the Cougars managed only six first downs.
McKim praised his defense despite their giving up a few big plays. “They played really well, they kept us in it,” he said. “They were put in a bad spot… [Kankakee Valley] caught a big ball over the top late in the game, which was highly contested; sometimes that’s going to happen.”
The Cougar defense put on a tackling clinic. Six sacks pushed KV back 41 total yards. Three of those sacks, plus nine additional tackles, belonged to junior linebacker Harrison Groves. Senior Matt Sorce led the defense with 15 tackles. Junior Hayden Scott took down 11; junior Brock Barcevic and senior Trenton Klute had 10 stops each. Senior tackle Dylan Wilson recovered a Kankakee Valley fumble, and senior cornerback Reece Lapczynski hauled in a big interception near the end of regulation.
New Prairie (9-2) will travel to Culver Academies (5-6) next Friday for the sectional championship.
