ST. JOHN — It was just Patrick Prescott’s night.
Before the high school football game, the senior running back was voted as the homecoming king.
During the game, Prescott rushed for 201 yards and three touchdowns. He also scored a touchdown on a 70-yard kickoff return in St. John’s 40-22 win over Pratt Skyline on Friday night.
Two of his touchdowns came in the final two minutes, 40 seconds, after St. John had been held scoreless since the first half.
“I think I did a few great things, but there are still a few mistakes that I need to work on,” Prescott said. “It gave us great morale, and got us back in it. We were just dogging it after that. We were dogging it, and letting them score. After that, we realized we could still do this. We didn’t need to quit. This is our homecoming. We need to defend it.”
With 2:30 remaining, he forced a fumble after thirty yard pass from Skyline quarterback Brandon Broce to Dalen Chain would have left the Thunderbirds with a first-and-goal on the 5-yard line.
“He was homecoming king, tonight,” Garcia said. “So we were teasing him in the scout cabin before the game saying, ‘Here comes the king.’ They were giving a hard time about it.
“I am very proud of him. He’s just a hard-nosed kid. He runs hard. He does everything I ask him to. One time, he comes over to me (during the game) and says, ‘Coach, no disrespect, but give me the ball.’ He’s a competitor.”
Skyline coach Jon Novotny argued the fumble, but after deliberation between referees, the play stood.
The win gives St. John a 3-1 record overall, 1-0 in its district. The Tigers accumulated 377 yards of total offense — 222 rushing and 155 passing.
The Tigers had  a stranglehold on the game going into the locker room at the half, leading 26-6.
“I was very happy with the first half,” Nick Garcia said. “We played really well. I challenged the kids to come out and play physical right out the gate, and I thought they did a great job coming out and playing smash-mouth football. That was definitely what I wanted to see out of them.
“The second half, things just didn’t got our way.”
St. John quarterbacks Kinser Crissman and Kade Kinnamon threw passing touchdowns in the first half.
Crissman hit Schuyler Brown for an 11-yard score, and Kinnamon found Crissman open for an 18-yard touchdown.
Prescott accounted for the other two Tigers TDs.
The second half opened with Skyline recovering an onside kick and driving 39 yards to score.
Neither teams scored against until the fourth quarter, when Skyline closed the gap to 26-22 on a pass from Broce to running back Brennan Stotts.
“I think right after they got that onside and kick and they ended up scoring on that drive,” Garcia said. “That was kind of the momentum shifter. You got to be resilient. You could easily fall back into a rut, and I was challenging them on the sideline. They rose to that occasion.”

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
At St. John
Friday
Skyline              6     0      8     8  — 14
St. John            12   14    0    14 — 40
First quarter
St. John — Brown 11 pass from Crissman (pass fail)
Skyline — Stotts 7 run (pass fail)
St. John — Prescott 70 kickoff return (run fail)
Second quarter
St. John — Prescott 46 run (Crissman run)
St. John — Crissman 18 pass from Kinnamon (pass fail)
Third quarter
Skyline — Stotts 9 run (Baird pass from Broce)
Fourth quarter
Skyline — Baird 31 pass from Broce (Baird pass from Broce)
St. John — Prescott 39 run (Prescott run)
St. John — Prescott 1 run (pass fail)