The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks opened up the district football schedule with a big 49-7 win over Central Lee Friday night in Wellman. Mid-Prairie wasted no time jumping on the Central Lee Hawks, scoring on four of their five first half possessions. Eessa Baylor got Mid-Prairie on the board four minutes into the game when he took a handoff and went 36 yards for a touchdown on a fourth and one call. Next up it was the Mid-Prairie defense as Spencer Shalla wrapped up Central Lee running back Gabe Halstead in the backfield. Shalla punched the football free, Jacob Adrian scooped it up and took it to the house from 15 yards out to make it 14-0.
On the first play of the second quarter Baylor got in the endzone for the second time on the night running behind Canaan Powell and Karson Duwa from 11 yards out to push the lead to 21-0. The Golden Hawks made it 28-0 two minutes later when Reid Miller connected with Zach Schwartz on a 44 yard touchdown pass as Schwartz snuck behind the Central Lee defense. Powell pushed the Golden Hawk lead to the 35 point mercy rule margin with his athletic 27 yard touchdown run with five minutes left in the first half.After the game Mid-Prairie Head Coach Pete Cavanagh talked about the importance of the good start for his team.
“I thought our offense did a nice job driving down and I thought Essaa made a nice run down the sideline and punched it in, and that was key for us on the first possession, and then we turn around and make a nice play on defense, Jacob Adrian picked up the fumble and ran it in,” Cavanagh said. “Anytime you can turn turnovers into points, and get ahead early, especially against Central Lee, they are a young team, so we were able to get up on them early, that helps a lot.”
With the big lead in the locker room, Mid-Prairie focused on working specific situations and getting the reserves some game action in half number two. The Golden Hawks pushed the lead to 42-0 with ten minutes left in the third when Austin Slabaugh crashed in from 11 yards out. Five minutes later Nolan Faselt tallied the final Mid-Prairie touchdown, scoring from four yards out after a 68 yard run the play before. Central Lee ruined the shut out late when backup quarterback Blake Burgess found John Boeck from nine yards out.
Mid-Prairie controlled the stat page outgaining Central Lee 346-176. Mid-Prairie also cleared up some miscues from last week’s contest scoring on all three redzone attempts Friday. Faselt was the leading ground gainer for the Golden Hawks putting up 80 yards on six carries and a touchdown. Reid Miller was six of 10 through the air for 83 yards, a pick and a score. With the win Mid-Prairie is 2-1 overall and 1-0 in district play. They will next be in action on Friday at Louisa-Muscatine.