Photos Courtesy of MP Sports Social Media (Nicole Miller)

The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk soccer teams gave their brooms a workout in Tipton Monday, sweeping away their River Valley Conference foes in two tightly contested contests by matching 2-1 scores. The night started with a Mid-Prairie girls victory in PKs. The Hawks got their lone regulation tally in the first half from freshman Samantha Wunderlich, her first goal of the year. The score stood at 1-0 Mid-Prairie through the break and into the last 10 minutes of the match before Tipton equalized on a Carly Langenberg strike. Even at the end of the regulation, the two teams remained that way through both extra periods, leading to penalty kicks. In PKs, Golden Hawk goalkeeper Niva Helmuth slammed the door on Tipton, stopping the first two shots, then watched as the fourth banged off the crossbar, while her teammates Elise Gingerich, Lydia Beachy and Evangeline Marner calmly strode to the box and drove shots to the back of the net that served as the nails in Tiger’s coffin. Helmuth finished with eight saves in the win. This week, Golden Hawk head girl’s soccer coach Truman Shetler talked with KCII Sports about what he saw from his team in the win.

Shetler said, “We held them scoreless until about 10 minutes to go in the game. We were close to holding them without having to go to overtime and penalties. Being able to hold them and get the job done was a good thing for our team, especially our defense. Definitely a good confidence booster. Elise (Gingerich) took the first one and scored that one. Niva (Helmuth) blocked their first shot. Lydia (Beachy) went in and hit the second one, so we were up 2-0, then Niva blocked the next one as well. Eva (Marner) came in and hit the fourth one so we were up 3-1. Then they hit the bar on the last one and that was it. This shows a lot about our team.”

The Golden Hawk girls are now 6-3 this year as Tipton drops to 2-4.

In the boys contest, all of the fireworks came in the first half of a Golden Hawk victory. Mid-Prairie’s Hugo Banuelos scored his first goal of the season on a Tucker Miller assist and Dylan Henry got his first tally of the year on a Banuelos helper. The Tiger’s goal came from Miles Christian on a Max Lashmit assist. In the second half, the Golden Hawk defense, dug deep and kept the Tigers from equalizing to take the one goal win, led by Joe Hall’s stellar 13 save performance. The win moves Mid-Prairie to 6-4 overall, while the Tigers fall to 5-2.

The Golden Hawk boys are back on the road Friday when they travel to Maquoketa, the girls take the field Monday when they host Iowa City Regina.