Our sixth biggest sports story from the previous school year for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks takes us back to week nine of the high school football season. The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks capped off their first winning season since 2016 with an emphatic pounding of Albia on the Blue Demon’s senior night 77-13. Mid-Prairie scored touchdowns on their first five drives of the game, opening up a 21-7 lead after one quarter and holding a 49-7 advantage at the half. The Hawks would find the end zone twice more in each of the third and fourth quarters. In total, Mid-Prairie had 13 possessions in the game, scoring 11 touchdowns, punting just once, and turning the ball over once.
The 77 points scored breaks the previous record of 72 points, set in a 1997 win over Wilton. The 11 touchdowns in one contest ties a school record, set in the same game against the Beavers. On scoring plays alone, Mid-Prairie posted 269 total yards. In total, they finished with 645 yards, including 537 on the ground. Both of those numbers are new school records. The previous record for total yards in a game was 630 in a win over Colfax-Mingo in 2006 and the previous mark for rushing yards was 495, also set in the Colfax-Mingo game. The Hawks outgained the Blue Demons 645-223 in total and 537-43 on the ground. Mid-Prairie was six of six scoring in the red zone.
Individually, Kayden Reinier scored five touchdowns on the ground, on runs of 93, 22, five, three and two yards. The five total touchdowns is fourth most in a single game in school history, tying him with Adam Kos, Sean Thornton, Josh Berry, Josh Boone, Tanner Miller, Brody Barthelman and Ricky Vargas. His 93 yard scoring run is the second longest rush in school history, matching a Kos run from 1999. His 270 yards in the game is the seventh highest total in program history for a single game and also pushed him over the 1,000 yard mark for the season, he ended the year with 1,127 yards and 21 touchdowns on 159 carries. Vinny Bowlin had a trio of touchdowns, scoring on runs of 80, 29, and one yard. His 80 yard romp is the 10th longest rush in school history. Nathan Quinby added two rushing touchdowns, one of seven and one of six yards. His six yard scoring run was the record breaker with five minutes left in the game.
Through the air, quarterback Brad Tornow found Chris Miller with a 22-yard touchdown pass. Tornow finished the game six of nine through the air for 108 yards and the one score. The Mid-Prairie special teams pitched in with a safety on a botched punt snap. After the game, Mid-Prairie head coach Pete Cavanagh talked about the record and his seniors. “I thought we played pretty well. We gave up a couple of deep ones but we had a good game plan and our kids executed it. We were able to run the football. First half helped set up our play action pass as well. A lot of guys had a lot of carries. Kayden and Vinny looked good in the backfield. We mixed things up and got a lot of guys in. It’s great for the team to be able to get a lot of guys in and see them have success. There is a lot of unselfishness with this team. That also helps build depth for the future. These seniors are a great group. We talked this week about how this was likely going to be our last game this year and how important it was to send them out winners. I’m glad we were able to do that.”
The Golden Hawks ended the season with a 6-3 overall record.