Prairie girls crush Storm

So the Falcons left no doubt Monday night.

Prairie made 15 3-pointers, Heather Corral and Angela Gelhar each scored 19 points, and the Falcons rolled over the Skyview Storm 84-50 in Prairie’s first game of the season.

“A lot of people were doubting us because we’re so small and they’re so huge,” Corral said. “But we can be small and still play big.”

Or in Monday’s case, the Falcons played lights-out. Prairie made 29 of 58 shots, including 15 of 29 from 3-point range. Corral had five of the 3-pointers, with Gelhar and Jackie Lanz each connecting on three.

“It feels good to open up the season like that,” Gelhar said. “We were nervous. They had played a couple games. But we had a great start, we hustled, and we believed in ourselves.”

The points came in bunches for the Falcons, too.

In the second quarter, sophomore Cori Woodward swished a 3-pointer, then got a steal and completed a traditional three-point play for six points in about six seconds, giving the Falcons a 40-20 lead.

In the third, Corral had back-to-back, step-back 3-pointers over a 6-foot-2 defender. Corral, a junior who is getting several looks from some of the top colleges in the nation, is coming back from a major knee injury that wiped away most of her sophomore campaign. For almost a year, she worked on her shot.

“Pretty much, that’s all I could do,” she said.

Sophomore Meghan Lindsley got into the act, ending the third quarter with consecutive 3-point bombs to make it 67-32. 

The lead reached 39 points in the fourth quarter, and the Falcons had the stats to prove their blowout.

Corral also had six assists and five rebounds, Lanz finished with 14 points and four steals, Gelhar also had four steals, and Lauren Goecke and Lindsley each had three assists. Lindsley was the fourth Falcon in double-figure scoring with 10 points, and Woodward just missed that milestone, with nine points.

“For the first game, I was really pleased,” Prairie coach Al Aldridge said. “That kind of looked like a mid-season game in a lot of ways.”

Skyview was without one of its leaders. Maddie Van Liew missed the game due to an injury. Katie Swanson had 11 points and eight rebounds to lead the Storm. Aubrey Ward-El, a freshman, had 10 points. Brooke Bowen displayed her all-around skills with eight points, five steals, and four assists. And Larissa Hamilton had eight rebounds, including five on offense.

This night, however, belonged to Prairie, which has never lost to Skyview. There have been some incredible battles between the schools in recent years, but this would not be included in that list.

The Prairie students even got to chant “Egg Mc-Muffin” when the Falcons reached the 60-point mark, giving everyone in attendance a free breakfast sandwich. The Falcons got to that mark in the third quarter.