The Mid-Prairie girls soccer team starts the season on the road Friday with a rivalry match against the rival Williamsburg Raiders. Mid-Prairie is coming off of a banner year where they tied the school record with 11 wins, finishing 11-6 overall and with a 6-1 mark in the River Valley Conference, taking home the league title. They scored 69 goals as a team and gave up just 30. They bring back their top six scorers from that team, led by two that got to double figures with all-districter Esther Hughes’ team best 21 goals as a junior and Sophia Baker’s 12 as a sophomore. In goal, the Hawks will turn to Ainsley Lueck where she spent 100 minutes last year, stopping all five shots she saw. She will try to replace Emily Swartzentruber, who as a senior, had nearly 1,200 minutes, 82 saves and a 73% save percentage.

Williamsburg was 9-8 last season, with a 5-7 mark in the WAMAC, finishing fourth in the conference. They scored 49 goals as a team and gave up 34. Individually they will have to replace last year’s leading scorer Erin Francis. The senior had 11 goals a season ago. Kyrah Sissel is the leading returner with nine. A trio of Raiders had a pair of assists last year including Francis, fellow senior Olivia Caron and Sissel, the only one back. Williamsburg lost their only keeper with experience as Ellie Stanerson moved on through graduation after 320 minutes on the line last year with 113 saves and a 91.1% save percentage. This week, Golden Hawk head coach Justin Barthelman spoke with KCII sports about the makeup of this year’s team, returners, and what has him excited about the upcoming season. “Esther Hughes was all-district last year and she’s back. She’ll be one of our main offensive players. Julia Boller is back. Her freshman year she had 19 goals and 10 assists and was the leading scorer that year but dealt with injuries since. Kaitlin Martin controls the middle of the field for us. She plays a lot of club and is probably the most technically skilled player that we have.  Sophie Baker scored 12 goals for us last year in her first year. Evelyn Gerber, Emily Curtis and Leah Bontrager will be important on defense. Ainsley Lueck is a senior and it will be her first year in goal.”

Last year was the first meeting between the two schools with the Raiders taking a 3-0 shutout win behind a pair of Sissel goals. Action starts tonight at 5p.m. At Bob Murphy Stadium in Williamsburg.