Prior Lake wins the battle of two top ten teams – by an inch

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>People like to complicate football. They want to talk about schemes and great coaches, and great strategies. Sometimes, football comes down to one player simply making a play. On Friday night at Prior Lake High School, that one player was Lakers' defensive back <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='112055' first='Joey' last='Krouse']</strong>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Leading 24-16 late in the fourth quarter, I thought Krouse had made the game-winning play with about five minutes to play. His fumble recovery gave the Lakers the ball back deep in Shakopee Sabers' territory. One first down, and the game was over. The Sabers' defense refused to give in and made a stop on fourth down to give their offense the ball back with three minutes to go.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In a game where first downs were hard to come by, and each ten-yard segment gained was full of smashmouth football, the Sabers' offense put together one more drive. They moved the ball down to the 25-yard line with ten seconds to play. The run-heavy Sabers' offense had no choice but to throw without any time-outs. After a couple of unsuccessful throws into the end zone, they had one more opportunity to score and get within a successful two-point conversion of a tie.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Because of Krouse, the Sabers came up (less than) one yard short.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"I was playing over the top, and I saw the receiver break inside," Krouse said amongst the chaos of the fan-stormed field. "I knew it was me or a touchdown. I bet on myself and made the tackle."</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Two quarters earlier, it didn't look like the Lakers would be in a position to make any game-saving plays. They were down 10-0, took too many penalties, and looked out of sorts, especially on offense. Add onto that, they lost two key members of the defense – forcing Minnesota Gophers' commit <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='112105' first='Greg' last='Johnson']</strong> to play both ways most of the game.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"I didn't get as tired as I thought I would," Johnson said. "It was fun. I grew up playing defensive line, so it was kind of natural."</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The game turned when the Lakers' offense decided enough was enough and started to play bully ball. They ran right at the Sabers' defense.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"We were playing at their pace," Johnson said. "We started going hurry up and started leaning on them. We knew they would wear down, so we were going fast on them, and they couldn't stay with us. We put our big boys on the line and said we were going to play big boy football."</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Running back <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='208274' first='Grayson' last='Spronk']</strong> and Krouse started to find running room behind Johnson. Penalties were killing Prior Lake early, but a Shakopee penalty on 4th and short gave Prior Lake a first down – keeping their first productive drive going. Johnson blew up a linebacker allowing Spronk to put the Lakers on the board from seven yards out.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Leading 10-7 late in the first half, the Sabers made a decision I still cannot figure out. It changed the entire game. Facing a fourth and short from their own 30-yard line, the Sabers kept their offense on the field. They had converted on at least two fourth downs earlier in the game – leading to their ten points, but this time, up three points with just 90 seconds to play in the half, Shakopee rolled the dice. Prior Lake defensive lineman <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='368529' first='Jide' last='Abasiri']</strong> stuffed the inside run for no gain, giving his offense the ball on the 21-yard line. The Lakers would end up with a field goal just before the half and a gift-wrapped three points to go into the locker room tied at ten.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Lakers kept that momentum going into the second half. They pounded the ball on the ground into the Sabers' defense and then converted on a third and long with a pass from <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='112130' first='Luke' last='Crosby']</strong> to <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='112107' first='Trace' last='Bowman']</strong>. That set up a later fourth and short. Krouse ran behind Johnson – a second-half theme – to convert. Crosby then scored from one yard out to give the Lakers the lead.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Using the option, Shakopee quarterback <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='228471' first='Dominic' last='Jackson']</strong> and running back <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='295817' first='Jadon' last='Hellerud']</strong> keyed a touchdown drive to pull the Sabers to within one point. However, they would miss the extra point and still trailed by one.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Prior Lake's <strong>Jake Fier</strong> took the ensuing kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown – the first time I thought the game was over – to put the Lakers ahead 24-16. That would set the stage for Krouse's fumble recovery – the second time I thought the game was over - and game-saving tackle to get the Lakers to a 24-16 victory and a 2-0 record.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->