Photo Courtesy of Mid-Prairie Football Social Media/Dillon Poole
The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk football team meets their second top 10 opponent in a row Friday when Iowa City Regina pays them a visit for a Week 2 contest in Wellman.
The Hawks are coming off of a tough loss in their season opener, 19-14 at No. 4 in Class 1A Wilton, in what was a back and forth top 10 showdown. The Beavers led 7-0 early, with the Hawks rallying to lead 14-7 at half and 14-13 late, before a Beaver touchdown throw in the final five minutes gave them the lead back for good, and a last minute Golden Hawk drive ended in the Wilton red zone. Mid-Prairie outgained Wilton 243-212 in total, including 195 to 96 through the air, but were beaten 116-48 on the ground and the Hawks committed a costly, early turnover. Brady Weber was 15 of 24 in the pass game week one for that 195 and a touchdown, connecting with Hudson Ehrenfelt who finished with 132 all-purpose yards and a pair of scores. Kaden Kos led the Golden Hawk defense with 10 tackles and a sack.
Iowa City Regina got by West Liberty Week 1, 42-28. The Comets gave the top ten Regals a battle, with Regina on top 13-7 after one, and 21-14 at half before getting some breathing room after intermission at 35-14 going to the fourth. The Regals won the total yards battle 461-322, including 198-104 on the ground. Regina committed the game’s only giveaway. The Regal defense put up eight tackles for loss and four sacks. Kyle Tracy led the offense going 12 of 17 through the air for 263 yards and three scores. He added 54 yards on the ground and a rushing touchdown. Savion Miller had 100 yards on 14 carries out of the backfield. Tate Wallace, Drew Greve and Hudson Koch all caught touchdowns for Regina. Edwin Gangba led the defense with seven tackles. The Regals enter this week ranked No. 8 in Class 1A in the latest Radio Iowa poll. Last year the Regals were top 10 in 1A in 10 different stat categories, five on each side of the ball. In 2024, they are trying to replace losses to graduation including passing leader Gentry Dumont at 2,390 yards and 26 touchdowns, leading wide receiver Jackson Naeve who caught 41 balls for 848 yards and 11 touchdowns and top tackler Ty Joss with 46 stops. This week, Mid-Prairie head football coach Daren Lambert talked with KCII Sports about what Regina brings to the table this year, and his keys to a win Week 2.
Lambert said, “(Last year’s game) is a motivation for us, for sure. With Coach Dumont moving on to West Liberty, the Regina defense changed a lot. They went from a four to more of a three man look. More defensive backs out there. On offense, they are very similar. They lost some very good players to graduation. In week 1, they were still trying to figure some things out. From week 1 to week 2, they are going to improve also. They are going to try to spread us out and we have to play assignment football, in a different look than we saw last week. We want to dominate the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. We need to create turnovers on the defensive end and maintain possession on offense with explosive plays. If we do that, do our jobs, play disciplined and don’t flinch of those moments of adversity, we’ll be just fine.”
The Golden Hawks are 9-14 all-time against Regina with the Regals winning the last three, including a 51-19 victory a season ago in Iowa City. Mid-Prairie’s last win in the series came in 2008. You can hear all of the action live tonight on AM 1380, FM 102.5, the KCII2 App and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Golden Hawk Football Pregame Show at 6:30p.m. and the Yotty’s Incorporated Kickoff at 7p.m. from Dwight G. Sattler Field in Wellman.