In a battle of district unbeatens Friday night at Dwight G. Sattler Field in Wellman, it was the Mediapolis Bulldogs that scored a key 38-7 victory over the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks. In a game heard on KCII, MEPO started fast. After turning Mid-Prairie over on downs, the Bulldogs found the end zone on their second snap when quarterback Drew Miller raced 70 yards to pay dirt to make it 7-0. A MEPO stop helped the Bulldogs find the end zone again, when running back Jackson Hutcheson finished a five play, 35-yard drive with a four yard scoring run to double the MEPO lead. After the Hawks second drive of 40 plus yards ended with no points, Hutcheson turned in his second four yard touchdown run of the night to make it 21-0, capping a nine play 62 yard march.

The Mid-Prairie offense continued to struggle to find footing. A Golden Hawk fumble was recovered by the Bulldog’s Parker Lange. The very next snap, Miller tossed a 39-yard touchdown to Noah Schmidgall to make it 28-0. The Golden Hawks stopped the Bulldog blitz momentarily on their next trip when Kaden Kos hauled in a 38-yard touchdown from Brady Weber to finish a five play, 65-yard drive to make it 28-7 MEPO. The Bulldogs got a Miller 42-yard field goal before half to take a 31-7 lead to the locker room. Following intermission, the Bulldogs got an Alton Wonderlich interception, and later, Hutcheson’s third four yard touchdown run of the night to put the game away. After the contest, Golden Hawk head coach Daren Lambert talked about his team’s performance and takeaways from the loss. “We were able to move the ball. We were having success throwing early. They were bringing pressure up the middle so we thought that we could get out on the edge, get the ball out quick. Five yards here, 10 yards there, put some drives together. Those first two drives, we just didn’t get a chance to finish. A drop here or a penalty there is going to set you back, and against a good football team like Mediapolis, you can’t do that. Brady (Weber) did a great job of stepping up in the pocket and trying to buy time. He found (Kaden) Kos there (for the touchdown). The run after the catch was exactly what you want to see. That gave us some life. Mediapolis has a bunch of big, physical runners. Same thing with their offensive line. You know what’s coming and you have to stop it. Both sides of the ball, for Kaden (Kos). A big touchdown catch and on the defensive side he’s finding his role. He’s our leading tackler. Brady (Weber) in each and every game. He’s a great leader. He took some shots tonight. He stayed in the pocket and delivered some great balls. He kept getting back up. He had to come out for a play or two, but on the sideline I could hear him say ‘I’m fine, I’m good, I’m good’. That’s just his competitiveness and the kind of kid he is. Losing makes you reflect. It’s all about how we face adversity now and that’s what we talked about in our postgame.”

Unofficially, MEPO won the total yards battle 387 to 281. Miller led Mediapolis with 206 all-purpose yards while throwing for a score and running for another. Hutcheson finished with three touchdowns and 118 all-purpose yards. Weber was eight of 17 for the Golden Hawks for 100 yards. Hudson Ehrenfelt finished with 156 all-purpose yards on 24 touches. Kos led Mid-Prairie with seven tackles. The win moves Mediapolis to the top spot of District 5 alone at 3-0, 4-2 overall, while Mid-Prairie drops to 2-1 in district play and 2-4 on the season. The Hawks travel to Central Lee next week.