Mustangs have been great in 2018

The past few seasons, the Prairie City-Monroe football team was close.

The Mustangs broke a playoff victory drought with a first-round postseason win over Roland-Story in 2016.

They went 8-2 last season with the losses coming by three total points.

PCM’s seniors are tired of being close. They are ready to be great.

“We want to be the team that did win the state title,” senior quarterback Reed Worth said. “That’s on a lot of our minds. We got that first win up there, and we’re one step closer.”

This year’s football slogan is “Great One Eight.” They had “Machine Sixteen” in 2016 and “Sacred Seventeen” last season.

This year, PCM head coach Greg Bonnett wanted to go one step further.

“I have always said this team has the potential to win the title,” Bonnett said. “When you do that, you’re great. You’re legendary. We want to be great, and it rhymed so we went with Great One Eight.”

The Mustangs have already been great. They are 12-0 for the first time in school history. They are in the championship game for the first time.

No matter how Friday afternoon’s Class 2A title game against second-ranked Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley ends up, the top-ranked Mustangs will still be great.

“We’ve been working for this our whole lives,” senior Isaac Telfer said. “It’s finally here. We are finally in the state championship game. It can be a good team if we lose, but we want to be great.”

None of the players want to talk about losing Friday’s championship game. They are traveling to the UNI-Dome one last time and will try to do something no other PCM team has ever done.

“We have to be great in one eight,” senior Nick Dredge said. “It feels great to be great right now. We still have to focus one more week though. We have another tough opponent.”

PCM will take its undefeated record into Friday to face a Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley team which has lost only once this season. That defeat came during the non-district season against 3A Sergeant Bluff-Luton.

SB-L also reached the UNI-Dome but lost its semifinal game against Western Dubuque last week.

BHRV lost to SB-L 35-21 in Week 4. Since then, the Nighthawks have won eight straight games and have scored at least 35 points in those games.

PCM is striving to become what Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley already is.

The Nighthawks will play in their third straight state championship game. BHRV won the title in 2016 and lost to Waukon in last year’s title game.

PCM’s seniors have lost seven games in their four-year careers. They are hoping to put this year’s Mustang team at the very top in school history with one more win on Friday afternoon.

“This season can’t be put into words,” senior Jarron Trausch said. “It’s high school. We are supposed to be able to remember these days for the rest of our lives, and this is the last season for me so we’re trying to be the best we can be.”

Senior running back Wes Cummings has been great in 2018. He’s already set new school records for career rushing yards and career touchdowns.

He’s the Mustangs’ go-to guy most games. He needs 51 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns to set single-season school records. If he can get those against the Nighthawks, the Mustangs will be in a good position to win.

“The last few years, we have been a pretty good team,” Cummings said. “This year, we are striving to be great. We want to be a great team. And I don’t think we can be a great team unless we go up there and win the championship.”