After a pair of tough losses, the Golden Hawks (8-5) were on the right side of a shutout on Tuesday, scoring five goals in the first half of a 7-0 win over West Liberty (4-6). 

Sophomore Sophie Baker scored all three of her goals in the first half, and said that Mid-Prairie’s passing was on point in the blowout win. 

“We did such a good job of just moving the ball around,” Baker said. “We weren’t the ones chasing after the ball the whole game, it was the other team. 

“We were finally in control, moving the ball up. And that felt really good. It gave us confidence that we could move the ball up and score.”

All of the first half scoring came from Mid-Prairie sophomores, as Kina Miller also found the net twice. Esther Hughes scored both second-half goals. She took just four shots and put three of them on goal. 

“That’s great when we’re getting everybody involved on each side of the field,” Mid-Prairie assistant coach Matt Freel said.

“That really  puts a lot of pressure on defense to be marking people coming through, marking people on the backside. And that just opens up lanes to that goal. 

“And that’s been something we haven’t done as well this year. But this game, I felt like we really put it together.”

Head coach Justin Barthelman was unavailable on Tuesday, as he and his wife Olivia welcomed their first child just the day before. 

Baker said that the team felt a little pressure to perform well in his absence. 

“But you know, with how we played today, it makes us feel like he’d be really proud if he was here,” she said. And that’s how we wanted to play. We wanted to play like he’s still here, like he’s still watching.”

The Golden Hawk defense did not allow a shot on goal while starting goalkeeper Emily Swartzentruber was in the net. Backup goalie Ainsley Lueck made two saves in 32 minutes of second-half play. 

I think the key defensively was just pushing up as far as we could, and just keeping pressure on them,” Freel said. 

“I think a lot of times we have a tendency to hang back, to not get beat, but we felt a little bit more confident, so we pushed up and we were taking away those passes or we were not letting them turn and just keeping the ball in their end.”

Mid-Prairie 3, West Branch 1

Five players scored goals on Friday as Mid-Prairie improved to 9-5 with a 5-1 victory at West Branch (3-7). 

The Golden Hawks built a 3-0 halftime lead before surrendering a goal early in the second half. 

Sophomore Paytin Swartz-entruber scored her first goal of the season in the second half of Friday’s win. Evelyn Gerber, Katrina Curtiss, and Paityn Jennings also scored. 

Sophie Baker had a goal and an assist, and Esther Hughes had an assist as well.