Week one of the new high school football season proved to be a test for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks, one they passed on the road against a hungry West Burlington Notre Dame team by a 28-18 score. Things were stacked against the Hawks at half, down 18-14 on the road after a see-saw first 24 minutes. Mid-Prairie took the opening possession of the game and in a shade under four minutes marched it 64 yards on 11 plays to a touchdown when Collin Miller connected with Cain Brown on a six yard scoring pass. After the Golden Hawk defense turned away the Falcons, Mid-Prairie drove to the red zone again before Miller was picked by Quincy Collins at the seven to stop the Hawk scoring threat. From there the Falcons used more than six minutes of clock to go 93 yards on 15 plays, finishing with a Caden Schwenker to Jack Riley 22-yard touchdown to pull within 7-6 after a missed two.
The Falcons took their first lead of the night after a Golden Hawk three and out, when Travain Donaldson sprinted 67 yards on a scoring run up the middle on the first play of the drive. A missed two left it at 12-7 Falcons. Mid-Prairie’s answer came from Braden Hartley. After a Falcon three and out, and shanked punt. Hartley ripped the Falcons right up the gut for 33 yards and a touchdown to make it 14-12 Golden Hawks. Momentum swung back to Notre Dame on the final play of the half when Schwenker scrambled around right end for six as time expired, giving them an 18-14 lead at the break.
The Golden Hawks controlled the contest after halftime. After giving up 234 yards of offense in the first half, and more than 100 to Donaldson and the Falcon ground game, Mid-Prairie gave up just 29 in the second. The Hawks took the lead back for good with their first possession, a seven play 58 yard drive that finished with Hartley’s second scoring run of the night, a six yarder to make it 21-18 Mid-Prairie. After another Falcon three and out, it was a 12 play 74 yard campaign that ended when Miller found Cobi Hershberger for his varsity touchdown, to move the lead to 28-18. From there, the Hawk defense continued to shine, closing down the Falcon attack and putting it away with a Brown interception midway through the fourth. After the game, Golden Hawk head coach Pete Cavanagh talked about his standouts in the win. “We’re breaking in a new defense, we just kind of challenged our guys at half. Challenged our linebackers, our seniors, to be more aggressive, get downhill and tackle people. We made a commitment to run the football in the second half and Braden (Hartley) did a nice job. I thought the O-line hung in there and got better as the night went on. We got some young guys up there, so that’s a credit to them. We kind of wore down their defense. We sprinkled in some play action and Collin (Miller) did a nice job. He’s new as well, so we’re working with him. He made some mistakes but he never got down on himself. We adjusted and he’ll just get better as we go on. If we can be balanced on that side of the ball this year that would be nice.”
Unofficially, Mid-Prairie outgained WBND 379 to 263. Hartley went for 152 yards on 22 carries with two scores. Miller threw more than 100 yards and two scores, one each to Brown and Hershberger, to go along with two interceptions. Brown had nine tackles and a pick to lead the Hawk defense, Grady Gingerich had seven stops. Mid-Prairie is now 1-0 on the season and gets ready for Sigourney-Keota Friday.