ALTAIR — The Rice High School football team hosted Weimar High School in an area matchup Sept. 11 in Altair on homecoming night in what was a very eventful night, some positive and some negative.
The positive was that the game ball was brought in by a a helicopter.
The negative was that Rice senior Kendruic Pratt took a massive hit late in the game and had to be escorted off on a stretcher.
“You don’t ever want to see that in a football game,” said Weimar head coach Dylan Conway on the in- cident. "We're definitely praying for him, praying for his family. Glad he was able to move his arms and his legs after taking that hit and hope he has a great recovery.”
According to Rice head coach Brad Dumont, Pratt suffered a concussion and is “ok” and “home and recovering.”
When it comes to the outcome of the game, Rice started the game off great defensively, but Weimar battled back after going back and forth for most of the game and were able to get the last score to come out on top before the clock ran out.
“They’re a really good football team over there,” Conway said on the win. “I knew that their record is not indicative of who they were and who they are. We knew it was gonna be a slug fest.
Our kids just kept fighting.
We could not be any more proud of how they just stuck with it.”
Weimar junior running back Mikael Shifatu scored the go-ahead touchdown with about two and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter on what would be the game-winning score.
“I got to do it for my team,” Shifatu said. “I ride with them and I die with them. They’re with me.” Rice played a solid game and definitely has some things to be happy about given how they’ve been playing recently.
“Differences in the game were penalties and turnovers,” said Dumont. “They controlled the ball and that was a big factor as well.”
A 25-yard field goal from senior Sammy Hernandez gave Weimar the first lead of the game at the 7:33 mark in the first
quarter, then Rice scored two touchdowns in a row on a long touchdown pass to Glenn Mills and another touchdown pass, this time for 32 yards to Isaiah Castillo to make it 12-3 after a failed two-point conver- sion, which would be the fi - nal score of the first quarter.
Weimar responded with 3:14 to go in the second quarter on a touchdown near the goal line from senior running back Jerron Fisher to close out the half with a 12-10 scoreboard in favor of Rice.
The Raiders scored on their first play of the drive in the third quarter on a 66-yard run down the Rice sideline from junior quarterback Kor’Dae Johnson, then the Wildcats responded with a 15-yard run up the middle from Shifatu to make it 19-17 before Rice’s Ta’rell Tarver took the following kickoff for a touchdown to put it at 26-17.
Shifatu continued his strong night and added a 50yard touchdown run with 3:15 to go and a blocked extra point made it 26-23 to end the third quarter.
Rice drove right down the field early in the fourth quarter and Johnson threw a ball to senior wide-receiver AJ Jenkins for about 10 yards for a 33-23 scoreboard.
About midway through the quarter, this back and forth battle didn’t stop as Weimar scored a two-yard touchdown from Ty Chmelik and a failed two-point conversion put it at 33-29.
After two big fourth down conversions late in the game from the Wildcats, Shifatu’s game-winner put his team on top and Weimar was able to get some big defensive stops to win the game at 36-33.
Weimar senior running back Jerron Fisher, 2, takes a hand off a looks for running room. Banner Press photo by Brian Pierson
