By ROBERT AUGSDORFER

Sports Writer

DONIPHAN – Doniphan put on a hard-fought game for homecoming and scored a season-high in points, but fell short 43-20 to East Prairie on Friday.

"I thought our guys played the hardest they played all year," Doniphan coach Jason Lance said. "They really wanted this one. We cut it down to one score and it kind of snowballed late in the fourth."

Tavion Ware was a huge factor for East Prairie as he was able to run into the endzone three times.

"We knew stopping Ware was our top priority, but he was able to run right through us," Lance said.

For Doniphan, Luke Emmons had a good game as he scored a couple of touchdowns while taking some lumps and carrying the pile for big gains on a few plays.

"Luke is one of our leaders that's always willing to step up," Lance said.

East Prairie (2-5) took advantage of a couple of Doniphan drives that stalled for a touchdown that Ware ran for 45 yards to the house and lineman Mark Gommons kicked a 40-yard field goal through the uprights to give the Eagles a 9-0 lead in the early stages of the second quarter.

Doniphan (0-7) finally got on the board around the six minute mark until halftime as Kris Black fell in on a quarterback sneak to cap off a 55-yard drive to make it 9-6 Eagles.

After the Don defense forced East Prairie to punt, Black was picked off around the Eagle 33-yard line and was ran all the way back to the edge of the redzone at the 20, but penalties on the play put the ball back on the Doniphan 39.

East Prairie was able to make up the penalty yardage and Braylan Cade was able to tip-toe his way into the endzone on a 25-yard pass play to give the Eagles a 15-6 lead at the break.

On the last play of the half, there was a question if Ware was ejected from the game for intentionally hitting an official, but he was allowed to remain in the game and on the first play of the second half, he ran it 68 yards to the house and made it 21-6 Eagles.

"We thought that would be the turning point if Ware was out of the game," Lance said. "But the refs talked amongst themselves during halftime and decided that it was an accident and let him stay in the game."

Doniphan was able to bounce back with Emmons powering his way through 15 yards for a touchdown to make it 21-14.

On East Prairie's next drive, the Dons almost forced the Eagles to turn it over on downs, however and poorly timed pass interference call on Doniphan gave the Eagles an automatic first down and Rudy Arizmendi ran it in from 14 yards out to extend East Prairie's lead to 27-14 at the end of the third.

The Dons weren't done yet as Emmons ran it in from four yards out to make it a one-score game 27-20 in favor of the Eagles with seven and a half minutes to play.

However, East Prairie decided to pour some salt in the wound with two scores late in the fourth quarter after a couple of muffed onside kicks by the Dons in order to run away with the road win.

"We were right there and things just fell apart on special teams," Lance said.

Doniphan will be on the road next week to take on Chaffee before returning home to play Scott City for senior night to close out the regular season.