The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk football team saw their 2022 season draw to a close Friday night at Bob Murphy Stadium, where they were beaten by the top ranked Williamsburg Raiders 63-7 in the second round of the Class 2A playoffs. In a game heard on AM and FM KCII, Williamsburg scored on their second possession with Gable Dayton racing 41 yards off tackle to put the Raiders up 7-0. Mid-Prairie answered on their next trip, covering 70 yards on 10 plays, the final 23 with a touchdown pass from Collin Miller to Cain Brown to tie things as seven. From there, the unofficial numbers saw the Raiders outgain the Hawks 329 to 91 in total yards while scoring 56 unanswered points. Williamsburg did not punt on the night, finishing the half with successive touchdown drives of 56, 13, 30, 43 and 42 yards to lead 42-7 at half, enacting the running clock in the second quarter. Four of those scoring runs belonged to Owen Douglas as he found the end zone from 49, 13, 43 and 38 yards away. Carson Huedepohl also connected with Carsen Steckley for a touchdown. After half the Raiders engineered a 60 yard drive, finished on a Collin Cockrell to Derek Weisskopf 22 yard touchdown connection to make it 56-7 and Landon Jepson hauled in a late touchdown pass to finish the scoring. After the game Golden Hawk head coach Pete Cavanagh talked about his team’s early touchdown, how the game played out for the final three quarters, his team’s season and seniors. “Our scoring drive was a little mix of run and pass. I think we passed the ball better this time around against them. That starts with the protection. They are a really good team up front. Collin (Miller) stepped up and made a nice throw to Cain (Brown), we thought those guys did a good job. Things are hard when they (Raiders) are so physically dominant. They made a commitment to run the ball and we could not tackle or defend it very well. It’s hard. When you can’t stop the run you’re going to be in trouble in the playoffs. We knew what was coming, we were there, we just didn’t execute. Our kids played hard, they just played against a really good team tonight. Probably the played the state champs tonight. Sometimes when you have these type of games at the end of the year you forget about all the good moments leading up to it and we had some great wins this year. I thought our senior class got a lot out of their abilities and were great to work with. So to me, it’s a successful season.”

In total, unofficial numbers saw the Golden Hawks outgained 417 to 180 in total yards, including 360 to 107 on the ground. The Raider defense forced three Mid-Prairie turnovers. Douglas led the Raider attack with six carries for 157 yards and four touchdowns. Braden Hartley led Mid-Prairie with 20 carries for 84 yards. With the loss, their second this year to the Raiders, the Hawks end their season at 6-4 and say good bye to seniors Cain Brown, Collin Miller, Grady Gingerich, Evan Phillips, Braden Hartley, Jaxsen Timmerman, Terry Bordenave, Jack Zahradnek, Kaden Meader and Shawn Dodds. Williamsburg moves to 10-0 and will face Centerville Friday in the 2A quarterfinals.