The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk football team had their first setback in 2022, falling to Iowa City Regina at Regal Field Friday 35-7. Mid-Prairie turned Regina over on their first series with a Collin Miller interception that he returned to the Regal 37. It was the first of two picks for the Golden Hawk secondary on the night. Mid-Prairie was turned away by the Regina defense after the takeaway, and then the Regals scored their second time with the ball as Gentry Dumont hung in, took the hit, and delivered a 40-yard touchdown to Jackson Naeve on a post to make it 7-0 Regals in the first. The two offenses then traded interceptions, the second one for the Mid-Prairie “D” came from Cain Brown. After a Regina defensive stop following the Brown pick, The Regals doubled their lead when Dumont went Steven Liu who broke tackles on the near sideline and streaked 40 yards for the score to make it 14-0. The Hawks had their most successful drive of the night right before half, marching 19 plays, covering 79 yards, nine of those plays to Braden Hartley, before an interception in the end zone by Naeve on fourth down stopped the threat leaving the game 14-0 home team at half.

Out of the break, Mid-Prairie was stopped near midfield and Regina took firm control with their next possession, moving the ball 63 yards on nine plays, the final 38 on a Jack Tierney touchdown run to go up 21-0. The Hawks made one more move to get back into the contest, late third quarter on a fumbled punt snap, Mid-Prairie recovered first and goal to go at the 10, putting Hartley in the end zone three plays later to get within 21-7. The Regals grabbed a pair of insurance touchdowns over the final 15 minutes of the contest to put the game out of reach, with Tierney throwing a pair of scores. After the game, Golden Hawk head coach Pete Cavanagh talked about what he saw as the difference. “We’ve got to be able to hang onto the football. Regina is a really good defensive team. You have to give them credit for some of the takeaways. There were critical moments in there. We were in it at half. I still felt good in the third quarter. After that it kind of got away from us. In the drive before half, we told ourselves we were going to go right at them. We were going to try to wear them down. Go with a little tempo, no huddle. Braden (Hartley) ran hard and Lukin (Rediger) blocked well. Our offensive line had a good push during that series. They started blitzing late in the drive so we had to change it up. I thought at times we did move the ball well, but we have to be more consistent. Grady Miller is getting better every week. We made some plays on defense, jumped some routes. We’ve got to be more consistent with it there too. I think our offensive and defensive lines are playing well. We just need to step up in key moments, third and fourth down on both sides of the ball.”

Unofficially, Mid-Prairie was outgained 326 to 161 on the night including 160-49 after half. Hartley finished with 24 carries 107 yards and a touchdown for the Hawks. Tierney led Regina, throwing two scores and rushing for another with 127 all-purpose yards. Dumont had 148 passing yards and a pair of scores. Grady Miller led the Mid-Prairie defense with seven tackles to go along with interceptions by Miller and Brown. The Hawks lost the turnover battle four to two. With the loss, Mid-Prairie is now 2-1, Regina improves to 2-1. The Golden Hawks are on the road at Eddyville-Blakesburg in week four.