WILTON

Hudson Ehrenfelt’s shout into the night told the story.

Mid-Prairie was down by five points in its season-opening game last Friday at Wilton. Less than two minutes remained. Fourth down. It was go time.

Quarterback Brady Weber escaped a fast-rushing defender and launched the ball downfield. Ehrenfelt jumped up and grabbed the ball with a defender on his back. He screamed in delight. First down.

But there was no Hollywood finish. Less than a minute later, on another fourth down, a pass missed the fingertips of Kaden Kos by just a few inches in the end zone. Game over.

“I knew these guys were fighters,” Golden Hawks head coach Daren Lambert said following the 19-14 loss. “I knew that they’d respond. We’ve got great leadership.”

Only a few minutes had passed postgame when talk had already turned to this week’s home opener against Iowa City Regina, a 1A powerhouse that has a new head coach in Dustin Elsbury and won its season opener against West Liberty.

“Brady (Weber) was talking to the guys at the end of the game, ‘How do we respond to this?’” Lambert said. “They’re thinking about, ‘OK, we’ve got a big one next week.’ They’re fighters. I knew that. Just showed me again.”

Until the dramatics kicked in, the Golden Hawks, and specifically Ehrenfelt and Weber, threatened to send the Beavers to a season-opening loss on their own field. Mid-Prairie scored on two consecutive possessions, a 48-yard touchdown pass from Weber to Ehrenfelt and a 2-yard scoring run by Ehrenfelt, for a 14-7 lead in the second quarter.

The Golden Hawks were hoping to stick another touchdown in during the final minute of the first half, but they ran out of time.

“Anytime we have the ball, we’re trying to look to score,” Lambert said. “The time was short, so you’ve got to be smart about not putting yourself in a bad spot to give them an opportunity to score.”

Weber passed for a game-high 195 yards. Three Mid-Prairie receivers, including Ehrenfelt and Kos, caught four passes apiece, but Wilton shut down the Golden Hawks in the second half.

A 46-yard touchdown pass from Wilton quarterback Drew Keith to Owen Hassell with 3:38 left in the third quarter pulled the Beavers to within 14-13. With 5:15 remaining in the game, Cade Souhrada caught the game-winning 16-yard scoring pass on a fourth-down play.

“They’re a great football team,” Lambert said.

Wilton stacked its run defense against Ehrenfelt, who was the leading sophomore running back in Iowa 2A last year, from the beginning. He rushed for just 35 yards on 16 carries, which was the lowest yardage of his high school career.

“Obviously, the game plan is going to be stopping 34 (Ehrenfelt’s jersey number),” Lambert said. “How they’re going to do it, are you going to commit a lot of guys to the run game? We started to spread it out a lot more.”

So, Ehrenfelt instead was turned loose as a receiver and totaled 97 yards.

“That’s when we started hitting some of those bubbles (passes),” Lambert said.

Until Wilton’s touchdown in the third quarter, Mid-Prairie’s defense slowed down Keith and the Beavers offensively. Wilton’s first touchdown, a 5-yard pass from Keith to Gatlin Rogers, was set up after Ehrenfelt misplayed a punt and the ball was recovered by the Beavers at the Mid-Prairie 23-yard line.

Kos led the Golden Hawks with 9.5 tackles as Mid-Prairie held Keith under 100 passing yards. Wilton’s longest running play was a 27-yarder by Jordan Dusenberry.

“It wasn’t going to be a shootout, by any means,” Lambert said. “It was exactly what I expected it to be.”

And at the finish, it was a defensive play by Wilton that spoiled the season-opening party for the Golden Hawks.

“We responded to the challenges,” Lambert said. “It doesn’t always mean you’re going to be the winner at the end, but like I told these guys, proud of how they responded to everything thrown at us. It’s week one. We’re not going to get challenged more than we did tonight.”

WILTON 19, MID-PRAIRIE 14

Mid-Prairie    7     7     0    0   -- 14

Wilton            7     0     6    6   -- 19

W: Gatlin Rogers 4 pass from Drew Keith (Rogers kick)

M-P: Hudson Ehrenfelt 49 pass from Brady Weber (Kale Miller kick)

M-P: Ehrenfelt 2 run (Miller kick)

W: Owen Hassell 46 pass from Keith (run failed)

W: Cade Souhrada 16 pass from Keith (run failed)

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

Passing: M-P, Brady Weber, 15-24, 195 yards, 1 TD; Gentry Bontrager, 0-1; W, Drew Keith, 8-14, 96 yards, 3 TD.

Rushing: M-P, Hudson Ehrenfelt, 16-35, 1 TD; Kaden Kos, 3-8; W, Owen Hassell, 14-53; Keith, 8-28; Jordan Dusenberry, 1-27.

Receiving: M-P, Ehrenfelt, 4-97, 1 TD; Kos, 4-56; Tatem Telfer, 4-25; Bontrager, 1-7; Blake Swart, 1-7; Ace Peck, 1-3; W, Cade Souhrada, 3-34, 1 TD; Kale McQuillen, 2-12; Hassell, 1-46, 1 TD; Gatlin Rogers, 1-4, 1 TD.

Tackling: M-P, Kos, 9.5; Conner Wiles, 4; Cobi Hershberger, 3.5; W, Owen Milder, 10; Hayden Hill, 8; Damian Pestle, 6.5.

This week: Iowa City Regina at Mid-Prairie; Wilton at West Liberty.