The No. 12 Mid-Prairie football team advanced through round one of the class 2A playoffs on Wednesday night with a 28-10 win at No. 14 Prairie City Monroe.

The two teams battled in cold, wet conditions in a game that pitted the high flying passing attack of the Mustangs against the ground and pound attack of the Golden Hawks. Mid-Prairie got on the board first when Karson Duwa capped a 12 play 53 yard drive with a two yard touchdown dive to make it 7-0 Mid-Prairie. PCM would answer with their next possession, driving 72 yards on 12 plays, as Chase Wilkie connected on a 30 yard field goal into the wind to make it 7-3.

After the two teams traded punts it was Mid-Prairie that would score next, a dominating 16 play 85 yard, ball control drive, ended with a Nolan Faselt four yard touchdown run to put the Hawks up 14-3. The Mid-Prairie defense then went to work forcing turnovers. Back to back Mustang drives ended with fumbles by quarterback Logan Gilman, both recovered by Mid-Prairie inside of the Mustang 20, the second resulted in points. The first was picked up by Karson Duwa but the Golden Hawk drive stalled due to penalties. The second was recovered by Caleb Runquist, and looked to be headed the same way as Mid-Prairie faced third and goal from the PCM 36 with just four seconds remaining in the half. As the buzzer sounded Ryan Cortum heaved a ball into the wind, to the end zone that ended up in the hands of Blake Schwartz and the Golden Hawk lead grew to 21-3 going into the halftime break.

The Mustangs got back in the game in the third quarter, following a Mid-Prairie three and out, PCM drove 76 yards on eight plays and got to the end zone on a Logan Littrell one yard touchdown dive to make it 21-10. The Golden Hawks quickly found the answer, grinding out a nine play, 80 yard drive that ended with Nolan Faselt crashing in from one yard out to put Mid-Prairie up 28-10. From that point the Golden Hawk defense stood tall, holding PCM off the board the rest of the way while the Mid-Prairie offense salted away the clock.

Individually, Mid-Prairie was led by Nolan Faselt who recorded 219 rushing yards and two touchdowns in the win. Ryan Cortum was three for five through the air for 41 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

With the win the No. 12 Golden Hawks improve to 8-2 on the season. Mid-Prairie advances to the second round of the class 2A playoffs on Monday night when they face the No. 1 Albia Blue Demons. Albia was a 56-0 winner over Iowa Falls, Alden in last night’s first round. You can catch all of the action between the Golden Hawks and the Blue Demons Monday night on KCII. The Washington HyVee Pregame show will be on the air at 6:30 with kickoff at 7PM.