INDUSTRY – Whether he finds himself on a wet or dry field, Western Beaver quarterback Jeremiah Pratt can run.
Pratt showed off his wheels in harsh, rainy weather conditions for Western Beaver’s (4-4, 4-0 MAC) final home game of the season on Friday night. The Golden Beavers earned a big Midwestern Conference win against Freedom Area, 26-10.
“I don’t know if the rain helped him [tonight], because on a dry field he can do some really special things,” Ron Busby, Western Beaver head coach, said. “He just plays. He goes out and wants to have success and wants the guys around him to have success. Jeremiah just wants to win.”
The third win a row for the Golden Beavers brings Pratt and company to a 4-0 perfect conference record. Overall, the team sits 4-4. Right now, they occupy second overall in the Class 2A conference, just behind Neshannock.
Pratt finished the evening with 285 rushing yards on 22 carries. The weather meant the ball was on the ground frequently. Pratt was responsible for two of Western Beaver’s touchdowns.
“I just went out there and did what I could, tried my best,” Pratt said after the win. “I tried to get my teammates involved. It wasn’t a great night for throwing the ball, so we stuck with what we knew on the ground.”
The contest started off slow, with Freedom Area (4-4, 1-4) earning the first mark on the board with a 32-yard field goal from Nick Fessler. Pratt followed up the Bulldogs’ opener with a 40-yard rushing touchdown. It was anyone’s game as Western Beaver had a slim, 6-3 lead going into the halftime break.
Busby said the biggest focus for the Golden Beavers was to protect the football.
“We had to battle through and make sure we took care of the football,” he said. “I told the guys after the game that these games are sloppy. We were sloppy. They always are. When you have this much rain on the field and things are this wet, it’s just a war of attrition. It’s about who makes the less mistakes. We made the plays when we had to tonight.”
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Western Beaver broke away in the second half, scoring 20 of its 26 points. In the third quarter, sophomore running back Landon Sallie strode into the end zone off an 18-yard dash. Pratt added another rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter, this time for 62 yards. Senior receiver Nathan Vula did his best running back impression by carrying the ball into the end zone for 52 yards.
On defense, Western Beaver shined, facing off with top five leader in yards in the WPIAL, Kaden Bailey. The Golden Beavers held Bailey, a senior, to 103 yards on 24 carries. Bailey didn’t score a touchdown. Instead, it was Mason O’Donnell who earned Freedom’s consolation touchdown in the fourth quarter, with less than two minutes to go.
“We got up field a little bit and ran by him a few times, giving him some creases and cutbacks, but for the most part we did a good job of wrapping him up when he did pop out to the second level,” Busby explained. “Our goal was to keep him under 100 yards. We were close to that. We changed the front a couple times in the second half. That seemed to help.”
Western Beaver will hit the road for its final two games of the regular season, first taking on Beaver Falls (5-2, 3-1) next Friday and then Neshannock (6-2, 4-0) on October 30.
Beaver Falls won their contest against Riverside, 20-7, on Friday night.
Pratt said that each week, the team ‘resets’ its record to have a fresh outlook and not worry about playoffs or seedings.
“For us, we’re 0-0. We just have to keep fighting,” he said. “We’ve got to make some upsets and keep our composure.”
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Western Beaver football's Jeremiah Pratt shines in win over Freedom Area