The #14 ranked Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk football team is back on the road for the first time in three weeks when they travel to West Liberty tonight.

Mid-Prairie is looking to halt their current two game losing streak. The last two weeks Mid-Prairie has matched up with #8 Williamsburg and #9 Central Lee in district competition, falling by a combined 39-7 score, most recently in a hard fought 14-7 game against the Central lee Hawks a week ago. Mid-Prairie enters tonight’s matchup at 5-2 for the year, and at 2-2 in district play. Though the offense has had a rough two week stretch the Golden Hawks still find themselves ranked 10th in the state at 6.4 yards per snap, 15th in total rushing yards with 1,484 and 24th in the state in scoring offense at 26 points per game. The Mid-Prairie scoring defense ranks sixth in the state giving up just 13 points per contest and the Golden Hawk secondary ranks fifth in the state with 11 pass interceptions on the season. Individually, Mid-Prairie is led by Ricky Vargas with 715 yards and eight touchdowns, on 92 carries. Nolan Faselt has 468 yards on 81 carries with five touchdowns.

Tonight’s opponent for Mid-Prairie is West Liberty. The Comets enter tonight’s action with a 1-6 record and stand at 1-3 in district play. The Comets have played much better in recent weeks, breaking a 17 game losing streak two weeks ago with a win over Louisa-Muscatine 14-7 and nearly matching their entire season offensive output last week with a 42 point outburst in a three point loss to West Burlington Notre Dame. When the Comets are doing damage offensively it’s on the ground, West Liberty is ranked #17 in the state in rushing with 1,481 yards for the year, while their passing offense is the fourth worst in the state, averaging just three completions and 40 yards per game. The Comet offense as a whole ranks in the bottom 10 in the state in class 2A in total yards with 1,764, and is 51st in the state averaging just 12 points per game. The West Liberty scoring defense is ranked 45th surrendering 33 points per game. West Liberty is led by sophomore running back Joe Kelly with 504 yards on 90 carries with five touchdowns for the year.

West Liberty leads the all time series between these two schools with a 9-8 record in the series. Last year Mid-Prairie got the win in Wellman 55-28 behind a big night from Austin Slabaugh who finished with 182 yards and four touchdowns on 20 carries. This game is packed with playoff implications as well. Mid-Prairie can clinch a playoff spot tonight with a win over West Liberty and a Mediapolis win over West Burlington Notre Dame. West Liberty needs to win out and get some help in the final week of the season to reach the playoffs. You can hear all of the action live tonight from West Liberty High School on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com. The Washington HyVee Pregame show is on the air at 7PM with kickoff at 7:30 on KCII.