ST. GEORGE –Dylan Draper is adjusting to life as the Big Man on Campus rather nicely. Of course, it helps to have a superstar running back like Prentiss Miller behind him.
Miller rushed for 250 yards, most of them in the first half, as Pine View trounced Uintah 54-7 Friday night at Panther Stadium.
The senior running back was nearly unstoppable and when the Utes did focus on him, Panthers quarterback Draper was hitting wide open receivers for touchdowns. Draper had four TD passes in the first half, three of which were hauled in by Cason Prisbrey.
“I love pounding it to Prentiss up the middle,” Draper said. “Then when the boot play comes in, I know they’re going to keying on him and guys are going to be wide open. I just get as big smile on my face.”
Draper inherited the QB job when teammate and starter Kody Wilstead broke hi ankle two weeks ago. In his two starts, Draper has six TD passes and a pair of wins.
“We relied on Kody a lot and when he went down, that was put on me,” Draper said. “People treat me a little differently now. But I can handle it. I like running the I. I’m not tall enough to see over our linemen in the spread.”
It was clear early on that it was going to be Miller time. After Pine View stopped Uintah 3-and-out, the Panthers offense featured six straight Miller runs. Those rushes netted the Panthers 57 yards and set up a second and goal at the two. This time Draper faked the handoff and hit Prisbrey for the easy TD.
After a Uintah fumble, Miller carried twice before Draper found Gage Afatasi from 25 yards out for the game’s second TD. It was 14-0 with barely over six minutes gone.
On the next drive, after a Uintah punt, Miller carried thrice for 37 yards and then Draper found Prisbrey again, this time from 22 yards away.
After another Utes punt and with the clock reading two seconds left in the first quarter, Miller decided he would score himself and shredded the Uintah defense for a 71-yard run. That made it 27-0 after just 12 minutes and Miller had already rushed for 176 yards.
“My mindset in this game and always is to try and do whatever it takes to help my team win,” Miller said. “If it takes 51 carries like last week, then that’s what I’ll do.”
Pine View’s biggest problem was scoring too quickly as the Panthers led 40-0 at the half. That meant a heavy dose of junior varsity players and a running clock in the second half. Miller had just two carries for 12 yards after halftime, although he also returned a kickoff 80 yards to set up his third touchdown of the night.
“No one wants to win more than Prentiss Miller,” coach Ray Hosner said. “He has been here four years busting his butt for us.”
Pine View finished with 391 yards of offense. Draper was 9-14 for 116 yards. Uintah got most of its 121 yards of offense late in the game off of the Panthers reserves. The Utes finally got on the scoreboard with 1:34 left in the game when Braxton Coonis hit Riley Domichel from 10 yards out.
Pine View, 2-1, plays at Dixie next week in both teams’ region opener.
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