The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks host the Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union Wildcats in a battle of KCII area girls soccer teams.

This match will be the season opener for Mid-Prairie. The Hawks are coming off of a 5-10 season a year ago. The Hawks are young this year, looking to replace 26 of their 31 goals scored last year. Maya Hall returns to lead the Golden Hawk offense after a pair of goals last year, Elizabeth Baker had four assists a season ago. Mid-Prairie also must replace goalkeeper Kirsten Duwa who had 107 saves last season.

The Wildcats are 0-1 on the year after falling in a shoot out 1-0 to the Mount Pleasant Panthers last week. The Wildcat defense is led by this week’s Hedge Above Lawncare Athlete of the Week Liana Sweezer who had nine saves in goal in the loss to the Panthers. The Wildcats will try to get the offense on track tonight against Mid-Prairie behind last year’s leading scorer Betsy Atanacio who had seven goals in 2017.

These two teams met twice a year ago with Mid-Prairie winning the first match 3-2 in Columbus Junction and the Wildcats returning the favor 3-2 in the first round of the playoffs in Wellman.

Action begins  at five tonight and continues into the evening at the Wellman Soccer Complex.