After a week off, the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk football team is ready for action tonight when they host the Eddyville-Blakesburg Rockets for the annual Homecoming game. Mid-Prairie is 1-2 on the year, after opening the season with a decisive 55-13 win over West Burlington Notre Dame, the Hawks were derailed on the road in week two by Sigourney-Keota 42-12 and forced to forfeit week three against Iowa City Regina due to injuries and illness within the program. Statistically, Mid-Prairie is averaging 340 yards of total offense per game. Will Cavanagh leads the Hawks on the ground and in the air. In the passing game he is 27 of 39 for 319 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions, in the rush game he has 18 carries for 139 yards and two scores. Jack Pennington has a team high six catches for 53 yards and a touchdown. Justice Jones leads the Mid-Prairie defense with 21 and a half tackles.
Eddyville-Blakesburg is also 1-2 on the year. They opened the season with a 32-29 victory over Albia before dropping contests to Chariton 21-8 and Pleasantville 21-14. The Rockets average 265 yards per game, 245 of that on the ground. Jessie Comelison and Blake Jager make a two headed EBF rushing attack combining for 112 carries 575 yards and seven touchdowns so far this year. Jager also leads the Rocket defense with 16 tackles. In the air, Alex Garman is 4/9 for 61 yards and two interceptions. This week, Mid-Prairie head coach Pete Cavanagh talked about how his team used the extra time off, and what they expect in the matchup with the Rockets tonight. “We had a lot of good practices during that time off. We went back to the basics last week and then this week focused back on our opponent. I think it’s going to benefit us and give us a chance to push the reset button in the middle of the year. We had a couple of guys get healthy. We still have some guys that will be out but we all feel a lot better about our depth that we have coming into this week. We’ve had kids step in and do a really nice job. Credit to guys like Jarrett Hoffman, Jack Pennington, Collin Miller, Shawn Dodds, and Dylan Henry. All guys who have come in and are going to help us in the skill positions. Eddyville has played in some close games this year so they are battle tested. They have played in three games already this year and we haven’t so that could be an advantage for them. They like to pack it in tight and run the ball like SK did so that will be a great challenge for our defensive front. I want to get back to finding the consistency that we had in the preseason and week one.”
Mid-Prairie leads the all-time series with the Rockets, holding a 10-1 record, including back to back victories in 2019 and 2020 by a combined 117-7 score. Last year’s win over the Rockets was also on Homecoming a 55-0 shut out in favor of the Hawks. The Rockets lone win over Mid-Prairie was a 13-6 win in 2018. You can hear all of the action live tonight on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Washington HyVee Pregame Show at 7p.m. and Systems Unlimited Kickoff at 7:30p.m. from Dwight G. Sattler Field in Wellman.