LAKE PROVIDENCE – Briarfield could not establish a running game when it needed it nor could it stop Prairie View’s Allen Spires.

Spires rushed for 247 yards, including two touchdowns and a two-point conversion, to lead Prairie View to a surprising 28-14 win over the MPSA Class A runners-up from 2006.

The 302 yards rushing allowed had Briarfield coach Lance Prine understandably concerned. They also had only 66 yards rushing on offense and could not score from the 3-yard line on four downs.

&#8220It’s a big concern. I thought we’d be better than that up front,” Prine said. &#8220Prairie View came in here and played hard. They came to play.”

Spires said he couldn’t remember the last time the Bastrop-based Spartans beat its fellow Northeast Louisiana private school. It was the Spartans’ first season-opening win since 2003.

&#8220It’s been a while since we’ve beaten them. I can’t remember us beating them since I’ve been at Prairie View,” said the junior tailback whose 51-yard TD run early in the third quarter erased a 7-6 Briarfield halftime lead.

The go-ahead touchdown came on a sweep which was a play Briarfield could not come up with a defense for.

&#8220We just got good execution. I just run and follow my fullback,” Spires said.

Briarfield (0-1) nearly answered Spires’ score with a long, 14-play drive that eventually fizzled on downs at the Spartan 3. Quarterback Jeffrey Graham had two passes go through a pair of receivers’ hands for incompletions on two of the four downs from the Spartans’ 3.

&#8220That was one of the turning points, not scoring down there,” Prine said. &#8220And some turnovers killed us. That was some poor decisions on my part.”

Prairie View answered the stoppage on downs by marching 97 yards in 11 plays. Spires had runs of 21 and 31 yards to keep the drive moving.

The Spartans got a two-touchdown margin when Kyler McMilleon scored from nine yards out. Spires ran in the two-point conversion for a 22-7 lead with 11 minutes, 21 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

McMilleon then intercepted a Graham pass on the ensuing possession. That led to a 19-yard TD run by Devin Richards that put the game away at 28-7 with 10:42 to play.

Briarfield made it 28-14 with 6:49 left when it cashed in a Spartan fumble with Jordan Jong’s 3-yard TD run. Stephen Hernandez booted the second of his two PAT kicks.

Spires, who had 95 yards in the first half, put Prairie View up 6-0 when he scored on an 11-yard sweep with 4:47 left in the first quarter. The kick was wide.

Briarfield answered with Graham hitting on 6 of 7 passes for 71 yards in an 85-yard drive. The score came on a 2-yard TD pass to Jacob Hopkins. Hernandez’s kick made it 7-6 with 41.5 seconds left in the first quarter.

Graham ended the game 14-of-34 for 187 yards. College prospect Jon Jon Taylor had five catches for 86 yards for the Rebels.