This week, the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk football team is on the road for the first time in the young 2023 season, when they travel to Iowa City to take on the rival Regina Regals.
The Hawks are 0-1 entering play after a 13-0 shut out loss to Wilton last week in Wellman. The Beavers scored on their first two possessions. From there, the Golden Hawk defense settled in and didn’t allow the Beavers on the board the rest of the night. The Golden Hawk offense showed signs of getting on track as the game progressed, putting together five drives of 40 yards or more, but no points, due in part to eight Wilton tackles for loss and two turnovers. The Hawks were outgained 341-259 in total including 253-145 on the ground. In his first varsity start under center. Brady Weber was 14/20 for 114 yards with a pair of interceptions. Hudson Ehrenfelt had a big night with 142 all-purpose yards. The Mid-Prairie defense was led by 13.5 tackles from Kaden Kos and a fumble recovery each for Grady Miller and Kurt Schneider.
Regina hammered West Liberty in their 2023 debut 44-6. The Regals led 24-0 going to the locker room. The Regals outgained the Comets 408-179 in total. Gentry Dumont was 10 of 18 for 179 yards three scores and a pick. Two of those touchdowns went to Jackson Naeve who also stuffed the stat sheet with a kick return touchdown. Ty Joss had two grabs for 107 yards and both ended up in the end zone. William Aitchison added seven carries for 99 yards and a touchdown. Jack Clark had eight tackles. Naeve and Andrew Greve each hauled in an interception. Looking to avoid back to back losses to start the new year, Golden Hawk head coach Daren Lambert joined KCII Sports to talk about his week 1 takeaways after film, his team’s work in preparation this week, what he sees from the Regals on paper and his most important keys for the Hawks tonight. “It was one of those films where we watched the entire thing, and basically talked through every single play. There were a lot of mistakes made, a lot of different things that we need to tighten up. It sets the tone for the week of practice. We had to come out and have a great three days in all phases. You also show them on film, the difference between the first and second halves, because we did have success. Defensively, we made some steps forward and offensively we moved the ball. As a coach, I was also critical of myself. (Regina) had success, they started off their season with a bang. Right after a big kick return, they threw over a 50-yard bomb for a touchdown. A lot of big plays through the air. They have some athletes. Good quarterback, good receivers, and as always, they’re well coached. It’s one of those teams that you’re going to have to beat them, because they aren’t going to beat themselves. We feel like we’re pretty good too. So if we do our jobs, we think we’ll make it competitive. Improve from last week, do our job and compete. We have to be relentless, face adversity and respond. Create some positive things our way and be physical at the line of scrimmage.”
These two teams met a season ago in Iowa City with the Regals scoring a 35-7 win. You can hear all of the action live tonight from Iowa City between the Golden Hawks and Regals on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Mid-Prairie Football pregame show at 6:30 and kickoff at 7p.m.