The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk football team dropped their home opener Friday night to rival, No. 8 in Class 1A Iowa City Regina, 28-17 at Dwight G. Sattler Field in Wellman. Regina took their first trip with the ball all the way to the end zone, 14 plays, 67 yards, capped by a Savion Miller one yard touchdown dive to go up 7-0. The Hawks got on the board on their second possession, after the first two drives were derailed by one negative play, Kael Miller connected on a 38 yard boot to pull Mid-Prairie within 7-3. The Regals put together an important 10 play, 80 yard march right before half to go up two scores, when quarterback Kyle Tracy raced around right end from three yards out. It was 14-3 Regals at the break.
The two teams exchanged punts to start the third, then it was Mid-Prairie climbing with three, finishing off a six play, 85 yard drive, that featured a 61 yard reception by Cobi Hershberger, with a three yard touchdown run for Brady Weber. Weber found Hershberger for two and it was 14-11 Regina. The Regal response was swift, back-to-back touchdown drives to keep Mid-Prairie at arms length, the first, eight plays 68 yards, finished by Miller’s second scoring run of the night. The second, seven plays, 69-yards to the endzone with Tracy finding Drew Greve to make it 28-11. The Golden Hawks added a touchdown late when they crossed 69-yards on eight plays in the hurry-up, finishing with a Weber to Kaden Kos six yard scoring strike to make it 28-17. Regina recovered the onside kick to stop any further comeback. On the KCII locker room show, Golden Hawk head coach Daren Lambert talked about the key plays, stats and sequences from Friday
Lambert said, “On special teams, we knew we were in a spot early where we could kick that field goal and get some important points. Kael (Miller), sophomore, stepped up and hit a bomb. Really proud of him. They were selling out to stop the run. Hudson (Ehrenfelt) is a tremendous football player for us and we were trying to get some yardage against softer coverage on the perimeter and ‘nickel and dime’ them down the field. Credit to Regina, we had to make some adjustments. We got a couple of second half scores, but it was just three or four plays that you would like to have a crack at again. Negative yardage plays that disrupted the flow of the offense. We had some guys step up and get some stops at times when we really had no other choice. Regina extended their drives and you have to give credit to them. Kaden Kos was flying around, so was Conner (Wiles), and the guys that rotated in on defensive line. I thought our defensive backs did a good job with their responsibilities. Cobi (Hershberger) is a good football player and unfortunately is facing an injury at this point in the season but still answered the call for us. You like his response. The common theme this week, just like last week is that we kept fighting.”
Unofficially, Mid-Prairie was outgained 351-205 in total yards including 185 to -10 on the ground. Tracy threw for 166 yards on eight of 13 passing with one rushing and one throwing score to lead Regina. Miller added 100 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns on the ground on 15 touches. Brady Weber led the Golden Hawk offense with 215 yards through the air on 16 of 23 passing with a rushing and throwing score. Kaden Kos had nine tackles to lead the Mid-Prairie defense. Regina is 2-0 as they host Mediapolis next week. The Golden Hawks welcome Sigourney-Keota to Wellman on Friday for Homecoming.