The No. 15 ranked Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys soccer team advanced through the first round of class 1A substate play Thursday night, beating Pella Christian in Wellman 3-0. After a defensive stalemate through the game’s first 39 minutes, the Hawks got on the board in the final five seconds of the first half on a set piece with Gunnar Gingerich finishing a Jack Pennington corner kick to give Mid-Prairie a 1-0 lead. In the second half, Pella Christian had a goal wiped out on an offside call that would have tied things, and Mid-Prairie took advantage with a pair of insurance goals, the first from Zeus Fugate in the 75th minute and the last from Aaron Slaubaugh in the last 10 seconds on a Fugate assist. After the match, Fugate, a senior, talked about the night. “After we started scoring we started to get more comfortable, connect passes, and build more. I liked how we fought through it. On my goal they sent me a through ball, the defender fell, I was able to keep going, shot it with my left and scored.”

Mid-Prairie finished the match with 16 shots on goal. They improve to 10-4 and will travel to second seeded Albia Monday. The Blue Demons were a 3-1 winner over the Chariton Chargers Thursday.