will-cavanagh

Photo Courtesy of Mid-Prairie Social Media

The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk football team is on the road for the first time in district play when they travel to Donnellson Friday to take on the Central Lee Hawks. Mid-Prairie is 2-2 on the year with wins over Eddyville-Blakesburg and West Burlington Notre Dame coupled with a loss to Sigourney-Keota and a forfeit against Iowa City Regina. Last week for Homecoming against the Rockets the Golden Hawks jumped out to a 42-0 lead at half, scoring touchdowns on each of their first half drives. Tyler Helmuth had nine carries for 127 yards and three touchdowns. Braden Hartley added a pair of touchdown runs and Will Cavanagh was nine of 13 through the air for 136 yards and a touchdown pass to Jarrett Hoffman. For the season, Mid-Prairie is led by Cavanagh at 36 of 52 for 455 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions. His favorite target is Jack Pennington with 10 catches for 110 yards and a score. Helmuth leads the run game with 25 carries for 242 yards and five touchdowns. Justice Jones has a team high 31 tackles, six and a half for loss.

Central Lee is still searching for their first win after a 62-0 loss at Williamsburg to open district play. The Hawks were outgained 455 to 66 in the loss to the Raiders. Central Lee has been outscored 228 to 13 in their four games this year, including 116-0 the last two weeks. On the year they are led by Bryce Finney through the air at 11 of 36 for 112 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. Cory Jones is the leading receiver with seven catches for 88 yards with a touchdown. On the ground, the Hawks are paced by Hunter Gregory with 23 carries for 50 yards. Grant Myhre has a team best 14 and a half tackles. This week, Mid-Prairie head coach Pete Cavanagh talked about the keys against Central Lee. “We’re pretty familiar with them and kind of what they are about. They have been up and down recently, but a few years ago they were a playoff team. They struggled last year. It’s important for us to get back to district play, start to build a rhythm. Getting district wins is what it’s all about, it’s important when it comes down to postseason positioning. They’ll mix it up, run and pass, they’ll spread things out. A lot different than what we saw last week with Eddyville where they were tight and ran the ball so much. They are young on defense. They run a 4-4 on that side of the ball. From our standpoint, any time you go somewhere on the road to play and you’re coaching high school kids you never quite know what to expect, so we view this as a building block going into the final three weeks of the year.”

Mid-Prairie is 10-2 all time against the Hawks, including a 4-1 mark in Donnellson. The Hawks have won four in a row in the series by a combined 214 to 35 score. Mid-Prairie beat Central Lee twice a season ago by 49-0 and 49-7 scores. 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 kickoff at 7:30p.m. from Central Lee High School.