Photo Courtesy of Mid-Prairie Football Social Media

The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk football team is back in action with one idea in mind Friday, clinching a home playoff game. The Hawks can take the first step toward that goal tonight, with a win over Centerville on the Big Reds Homecoming. Mid-Prairie comes in at 4-2 on the year, 2-1 in Class 2A, District 6 after a 56-7 loss on their Homecoming a week ago in Wellman to No. 1 Williamsburg. The Hawks got their lone touchdown on the ground from Braden Hartley who finished with 29 carries for 103 yards and a score a week ago. Mid-Prairie averages 27 points per game and gives up 21, posting 272 yards per night on offense, 203 on the ground. Hartley leads the Hawks at 139 carries for 867 yards and 11 touchdowns. Collin Miller under center is 23 of 65 for 369 yards with four touchdowns and six interceptions. Cain Brown has caught 14 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns. Brown leads the Hawk defense with 31 and a half tackles. Mid-prairie leads the state with 19 takeaways, Brown has four picks and Dylan Henry has four takeaways individually.

Centerville matches Mid-Prairie at 4-2 overall and 2-1 in district. The Big Reds beat EBF on the road a week ago 56-27. They outgained the Rockets 401-314 including 157-28 through the air. Brody Tuttle had 153 all-purpose yards, passing for a score and rushing for two others. In total, eight players had a hand in scoring Centerville touchdowns last week. The Big Reds average 27 points per game and give up 23, posting 309 yards of offense a week, 181 of that on the ground. Brody Tuttle is 10th in the state with 1,191 total yards, 624 through the air on 40 of 75 for six touchdowns and five interceptions. He has connected with Griffin Weber 18 times for 268  yards and a pair of touchdowns. He’s also thrown three scores each to Conner Stephens and Ryan Sinnott. On the ground Tuttle is also the leader with 99 carries, 570 yards and six scores. Sam Hash adds five rushing touchdowns. Jax Mosely has a team best 39 and a half tackles, five and a half for loss. They have forced seven turnovers on the year with Stephens picking off three passes. This week, Mid-Prairie head coach Pete Cavanagh assessed where his team is and talked about the keys to a win. “We’re fighting though it. It was a tough week last week. The kids have high expectations for themselves so there is some adversity coming off last week. Accountability, responsibility, and talking about how to handle adversity moving forward. It’s important how you bounce back. Similar to last year, Centerville had a really good quarterback. It seems like 80% of their offense goes through him. Run or pass. They run a wide variety of stuff and it’s a lot for our defense to get prepared for. That’s tough on a defense. For us, we just have to get in the right spots, be fundamentally sound and bottle him up. We have to continue to run the football like we have been doing and play good sound defense, not give up big plays.”

These teams met for the first time ever last year in Wellman with Mid-Prairie taking a 42-21 win. You can hear all of the action live tonight between the Golden Hawks and the Big Reds on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Washington HyVee Pregame Show at 7p.m. and kickoff at 7:30 from Paul Johnson Field in Centerville.