Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Curley Wolves Sink Bismarck To Open Conference

The real season started Friday night for the Prescott Curley Wolves, who won their opening 7AAA Conference game against Bismarck 42-0. This was the first win for the Wolves, having been defeated by Mineral Springs, Hope and Gurdon.

Quarterback Josh Bullock passed for three touchdowns, one each in the first, second and fourth quarters. The longest was a 61-yarder to Mark Jones in the first period. Jones also caught a 36-yard TD pass in the fourth. Decolen Prater was the other recipient of a TD pass. Also scoring for Prescott were Rafael Marlow, Craig Teague and Bryan Joseph.

Joseph sparked the Curley Wolves on the opening kick-off with a 76-yard return to score first for his team.

Jesse Wright also scored six points, kicking the extra point after every touchdown.

This is the first time this season that the Curley Wolves looked like a team of the past. The offense had a total of 373 yards against the Lions and the defense forced six turnovers in the game, with Joey Wyman recovering two fumbles and Joseph Stueart intercepting two passes. Prater captured another interception and Teague recovered a fumble.

Defensive pressure came from a lot of directions against Bismarck, but perhaps the most noticeable was from the hands of Bullock, who plays linebacker on defense. He was able to get in the way of Chase Meyers, the Lions quarterback, consistently, knocking down several passes that could have given the Lions a ray of hope offensively.

As it was the Big D kept the Lions to fewer than 100 yards for the night. They netted 72 yards rushing, but managed only 12 in the air against the Wolves.

However, the Lions were able to come up with seven first downs, three of them because of major penalties against the Wolvesall in the third period.

In addition to the 76-yard TD return to begin the game, Joseph also rushed for an additional 32 yards on nine carries. He fumbled the ball away on two occasions.

Prescott's second touchdown also came in the first quarter when the Bullock-Prater play went 61 yards for the TD, climaxing a 79-yard drive.

Bismarck had made two first downs on its second possession of the night. But the Prescott defense tightened up when the Lions got inside the 25-yard line. On fourth and seven Meyer's pass was out of reach and out of the end zone to turn the ball over one downs to the Wolves.

There was a fumble by the Wolves on the hand-off on the first play of the scoring drive, but a Curley Wolf recovered for Prescott to keep the ball. Bullock then missed Prater with a pass and it looked gloomy. On the next play Bullock was chased and could not get the pass off, but he found a hole and ran the ball to the 33 for a first down.

Teague then rushed twice, for seven yards and again for six to get the first down at his 46-yard line.

Joseph tried to sweep right, but the Bismarck defense was ready for him and caught him in the backfield for a two-yard loss. Bullock then missed Prater with a pass. He next completed a screen pass to Jones that was nullified for an illegal procedure call, moving the ball back to the Wolves 39-yard line. Bullock then went with a bomb and his Jones for the 61-yard TD.

The quarter ended with Bismarck punting on their down. The ball was centered at the 14, but punter Steven Laliberte's kick was blocked near the goal line. One mistake, though: Prescott forget to fall on the ball. Laliberte picked it up and ran it out to the 13 to end the quarter.

His next punt began the second period; it rolled dead at the Lions 48-yard line.

On Prescott's first play of the quarter Bullock missed Joseph with a pass, and on the second play Joseph fumbled. Three plays later Wyman recovered a Bismarck fumble at the same mark where the Curley Wolves began earlier, the 48. This time, though, the Wolves look sharp as they scored five plays later.

On first down Teague gained six yards, then three on the second and four on his third carry for the first down at the Bismarck 35.

Marlow then got the call and gained 22 yards for another first down at the 13.On the next play Marlow went the 13 yards for Prescott's third TD.

Marlow, Prescott's long distance kicker, did a good job during the night with two going into the end zone. This was one.

Bismarck couldn't do any thing right at this point. A 10-yard penalty pushed them back to the 10. Then Bullock, Kendall Todd and Martel Woodley brought Meyer down on the one yard line. The Lions finally punted from their 11 with the Wolves only 36 yards away from another TD.

Marlow got the first call this time and gained 14 yards for a first down at the Bismarck 22.

Joseph then got two calls, the first for two yards and the second for nine and another first down.

On the next play Teague lost a yard, then Bullock went back to pass, but he was forced to run and made it to the two, just shy of a first down. Teague then went over for his team's fourth touchdown.

On Bismarck's next possession they managed one first down on an option play. From their 39 the Lions were finally facing a fourth four. Meyer attempted a pass that was tipped and Prater caught it for a turnover at his 43-yard line.

Marlow was stopped for a loss back at the 40, then Joseph rushed for nine to his 49-yard line. On the next play Bullock was hit as he was releasing the ball for a pass to fall incomplete. On fourth and four he found Prater open near the 20 and connected with him. Prater managed to evade the Bismarck defense for the fifth Prescott TD in the first half.

The Curley Wolves rested in the end zone on the hot, humid night with a comfortable 35-0 halftime lead.

During the first half the Curley Wolves had racked up 10 first downs to three for Bismarck. The Wolves had rushed 125 yards and Bullock had passed for another 130.

Prescott had been only penalized twice during the two periods. They had been playing heads-up ball, making few mistakes and taking advantage of Bismarck's. It was the kind of game Prescott fans like.

Perhaps the third period was the worst for the Curley Wolves, although they had fewer offensive yards the fourth quarter.

Prescott gave the Lions two first downs with penalties to begin the second half. Later in the quarter they Wolves did it again.

On the first one there were too many Wolves on the field when the Lions punted. This gave Bismarck a first down. On the first play of the next series Prescott was flagged for an interference call, giving them another first down. However, it should be noted, that on the next play, when Bismarck was threatening from the Prescott 35, that Stueart captured the ball at the one to prevent a touchdown. Yes, the Wolves were playing them close, close enough to get another interference call later.

But the Prescott defense was making things happen with their aggressive defense. During the quarter two fumbles were recovered and the one pass intercepted. One of the fumble recovered came at a very crucial time, as many of them do.

The Wolves themselves had lost a fumble to the Lions at the Prescott 49. On the first play, then, Meyer completed a pass to Drew Smyly for a first down at the Prescott 21. His next pass was incomplete, but Prescott was flagged for interference to give the Lions a first down at the seven-yard line.

A pass attempt to Laliberte fell incomplete, thanks to Jones; another pass, for Mike Wagner, was also missed. This time the defensive line went charging after Meyer. As he went down he attempted to pitch off to one of the backs, but the pitch missed and was recovered by Wyman for the turnover at the 12.

This would begin Prescott's longest scoring drive of the night.

Marlow got the first call and the first down at his 35-yard line.

Teague was stopped for no gain on the next play, then Marlow got the call and another first down, this time at the 46.

Teague was again stopped for no gain and once more Marlow was called on. He got the first down at the Bismarck 39.

On the first play of the next series of downs Teague lost a yard; on the second play he was stopped for no gain; and on the third he lost another yard. Bullock punted the ball, but a personal foul against the Lions gave Prescott the needed first down at the Bismarck 27. The third quarter ended with a fumble on the handoff, but with Prescott recovering.On the first play of the fourth period Bullock connected with Prater for 10 yards, just shy of the first down. Things got worse. Bullock was sacked on the next play for a loss of 18 yards. However, the loss did not deter the game plan. He came back with another pass that connected with Jones for the sixth touchdown of the game.

For the night Bullock attempted 11 passes, completing five for 176 yards. The other six fell incomplete. Meyer attempted 26 passes in a catch-up situation. He only completed two for 12 yards. Meyer had five intercepted and the rest fell incomplete.

Prescott had 16 first downs while the Lions finished with seven.

Marlow was Prescott's biggest rusher with 106 yards on nine carries. Teague carried 22 times for 55 net yards and Joseph rushed nine times for 32 yards. Matt Skaff was the biggest rusher for the Lions with two carries in the first period that netted 45 yards.

The Curley Wolves were penalized seven times for 75 yards, with five of them coming in the third period for 55 yards. Bismarck was penalized six times for 45 yards.

The win should have given the Wolves more confidence than they had, but they don't to think that the next teams will be as easy as the Lions were  this week in particular since each week must be taken one game at a time.

Friday the Curley Wolves will travel to Nashville for the big shoot-out with the Scrappers. The Wolves must put all their concentration on this game and not the game past. Nashville is certainly not Bismarck. The Lions just came up to this conference three years ago. Nashville is probably large enough to go into the AAAA league  or nearly large enough. There's a bunch of big boys on that team.

While Prescott is smaller in size and number, a win is possible. Anything can happen when these two teams meet.

The only mark Nashville against the Scrappers this year came outside the conference at Warren. The Lumberjacks are tough and probably caught the Scrappers sleeping, but nonetheless Nashville lost.

Nashville opened the season this past week with a win over Mena. Maybe Prescott can continue calling the right plays offensively and the defense will have the same strong determination and come back home with another road victory. We'd like to see it.