The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk football team dropped their second straight road contest this season on Friday with a 28-21 loss at No. 12 in class A Belle Plaine. In a game heard on AM and FM KCII, things moved quickly in the first half with both teams pounding the ball on the ground, wanting to control time of possession. The Golden Hawks moved the ball into the red zone on their first drive of the game before a fumble thwarted the scoring attempt. Belle Plaine also came up empty on a red zone trip in the game’s first quarter when Vinny Bowlin and Cain Brown stopped Ben DeMeulenaere on fourth and goal and the five. Eventually, Belle Plaine would break through at the 6:11 mark of the second when Luke DeMeulenaere found paydirt from eight yards out to make it 6-0 Belle Plaine. Mid-Prairie would respond on the final play of the half. As time expired Bowlin aired it out to Nathan Quinby in the end zone from the 31 yards away with the Jake Swartzendruber extra point giving Mid-Prairie a 7-6 lead at the half.

In the second half, Tyler Helmuth recovered a Plainsman fumble on the first play, but the Hawks were quickly turned away three and out. From that series on, things changed from a defensive struggle to a shoot out for both sides. The Plainsmen jumped back on top with an 11 play, 69 yard drive that ended with a Ben DeMeulenaere touchdown to go up 14-7 after the two point conversion. Mid-Prairie would get it back to even in the first minute of the fourth quarter, finishing a five play, 55 yard drive with a Bowlin to Cain Brown 35 yard touchdown to tie things 14. On the Plainsman’s first play of the next drive, Luke DeMuelenaere went 68 yards right up the middle for a touchdown to put BP up 22-14 after the two point try. The Plainsmen made it 28-14 with a 14 play, 54 yard drive, finished with a Luke DeMuelenaere four yard touchdown run. Quinby picked off the two point conversion attempt to leave it a two score game with three minutes to go. Mid-Prairie flew down the field with the ball next, going 57 yards on four plays in just 52 seconds with Bowlin going up top to Clark Latchem for a 47 yard score to pull the Hawks within 28-21. The Mid-Prairie defense dialed up one more stop and got the ball back to the offense with one minute to go. The Hawks drove from their own 42 to the Belle Plaine 11, but were stopped short of tying the game by the Plainsmen defense and some apparent clock mismanagement by the officiating crew.

Mid-Prairie was led on the night by Bowlin through the air at 12 of 25 for 208 yards and three touchdowns. Latchem had four catches for 116 yards and a touchdown. Brown pulled in four catches for 61 yards and a score. Kayden Reinier had 17 carries for 108 yards. Justice Jones was incredible defensively with 17.5 tackles. Luke DeMuelenare led Belle Plaine with 45 carries for 262 yards and three touchdowns. Mid-Prairie outgained the Plainsmen 335 to 313 . The Hawks had two turnovers and forced two. Mid-Prairie scored once on three red zone trips and committed six penalties for 64 yards. With the loss, the Golden Hawks are now 2-3 on the year as they return to Wellman next week to meet West Burlington Notre Dame for Homecoming.