The party started early and lasted all game Friday at Dwight G. Sattler Field in Wellman as the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks celebrated senior night with a 49-0 shut out of visiting Central Lee. After a week of no football due to COVID-19 concerns, Mid-Prairie was ready to get back to action, and showed it by making a statement early. The Golden Hawks marched the field with the game’s opening possession, covering 45 yards in just 90 seconds, the last chunk coming on a 30 yard Kayden Reinier touchdown run to go up 7-0. After a Central Lee punt, Reinier took a handoff on the first play from scrimmage and cruised through the elements and the Hawk defense, 66 yards for six more, pushing the Mid-Prairie lead to 14-0 with 8:18 to go in the first. The Mid-Prairie got their first takeaway of the year, a Ben Meader fumble recovery, and the Golden Hawk offense supplied another touchdown, this time finishing a five play, 32 yard drive with Josh Wallington’s first career offensive touchdown to make it 21-0 at the end of the first.
The second quarter was more of the same, a Mid-Prairie defensive stop and a Golden Hawk scoring drive, this one eight plays, 71 yards, finished by a Reinier 67 yard scamper through the mud in the muck, his hat trick made it 28-0. The Golden Hawk defense scored another takeaway this time it was Justice Jones with a pick that turned into points on the next play when Reinier found the end zone for the fourth time in the contest on a 50 yard rush to make it 35-0. That’s where the score stood at the halftime break.
Out of the locker room, Mid-Prairie stopped the Hawks on fourth down near Mid-Prairie and Reinier went the distance one more time, a 50 yard touchdown run on the Golden Hawks first play of the second half sent the score to 42-0 and Reiner into the record books. He finished the night with 316 yards, a new school record for yards on the ground in a single game, eclipsing Golden Hawk great Josh Berry’s 2005 performance of 301 yards in a win over Louisa-Muscatine. Up 42-0, the Mid-Prairie defense continued to tighten the screws, forcing three more three and outs and two more Central Lee turnovers, the first a Keegan Gingerich pick, the second a Michael Kelly fumble recovery. Clarke Latcham added a 73 yard touchdown run, a career long, in the games last 15 minutes. After the game, Mid-Prairie head coach Pete Cavanagh talked about the total team performance. “Our guys up front have been playing well. Joe Allred, Gannon Callahan, Jack Zahradnek, Josh Wallington, Conner Shalla, tight end Justice Jones and fullback Cael Garvey have really been solid for us. Kayden (Reinier) has some work to do as well, but a lot of that work is done before he gets to the line of scrimmage. It was nice to see Clarke Latchem get in there with a long run at the end. Tonight, it was a matter of hanging on to the football in these games and running north and south. You aren’t going to be able to make a lot of cuts. It was fun tonight. Defensively, it starts with our ends, Ben (Meader) and Josh (Wallington), I thought Cael Garvey and Michael Kelly both had great nights as well. That frees up our linebackers to make plays. We were more aggressive tonight. We’re a prideful defense, we don’t like to give up yards like we did in week one. We made it a goal to limit our giveaways and force turnovers on defense. With the weather conditions tonight, that lent itself to our gameplan.”
Collectively, the Golden Hawks did what they wanted offensively and suffocated Central Lee on defense. Mid-Prairie had 14 first downs to Central Lee’s two, outgained the Hawks 447-37 on the night and held Central Lee to -15 yards rushing. Reinier finished the night with the record setting total of 316 yards on the ground, on just 12 carries. Will Cavanagh and Michael Kelly finished with four and a half tackles each, Kelly with three and a half stops for loss. Mid-Prairie honored a group of 13 seniors before kickoff on a ceremony on the track. With the win, Mid-Prairie is 1-1 on the year as they look ahead to Eddyville-Blakesburg next week.