After struggling through the first half at Cedar Valley Christian (0-4), the Mid-Prairie girls (3-1) scored four goals in a span of five minutes to leave Alburnett with a 6-1 victory. 

“We definitely came out flat and then at halftime, we got it all together,” explained Evelyn Gerber, who plays in the center of the defense. “We came together as a team and we talked and made sure we played with aggression and with passion.”

The Golden Hawks held a brief 1-0 lead after Kaitlin Martin converted a penalty kick opportunity in the first half, but CVC came back to tie the game at 1-1 before halftime. 

The score remained knotted at one until the Golden Hawks scored off of a corner kick 10 minutes into the second period. Gerber’s kick was redirected by the goalkeeper, but it found the head of Esther Hughes, who put it off the keeper into the net. It was the first of four goals for Hughes, who had her second four-goal game of the young season.

A minute later, Sophie Baker hammered a shot that hit the crossbar and went into the goal. Baker said that the halftime discussion was key to the Golden Hawks’ second-half play. 

“Just realizing the things that we need to work on really helps us, because we can all come together then and talk,” she said. “And I think that was definitely what helped once we started getting the goals and we got more confident and realized we can win this. You know, we started off bad and we learned from it, but we can’t allow it to happen in any more games.”

Hughes added two more goals, just 18 seconds apart. Her third goal came from the top of the box, she struck the ball while taking contact from a CVC defender and watched the ball find the net as she fell to the grass. 

It was Mid-Prairie’s adjustment to the physical style of the game that was key according to sophomore Kina Miler.

“I think we had a lot of aggressiveness,” she said about the second half. “We went after every ball and we wanted every ball to be ours. So we kind of pushed more, and didn’t allow them to take it from us.”

Hughes took advantage of the aggressiveness of the CVC goalkeeper, who came out of the net to challenge the Golden Hawk forward. Hughes maintained possession of the ball and evaded the goalkeeper before gently redirecting the ball into a wide open net for the final score of the day. 

Coach Justin Barthelman said that his squad was missing quite a few players on Friday, but it was good to see them adjust to the new lineup and show growth throughout the game. 

“It was great to see that we had a lot of different players step up,” he said. “We had girls playing in positions that never played before.

“(Cedar Valley Christian) was pretty aggressive in the first half there. They’re moving, they’re bumping us off balls. And the girls kind of realized that too. They were talking about it like, ‘hey, they’re being aggressive, we got to be aggressive back.’ And then they did that in the second half. They were physical. They just kept being aggressive. They kept attacking, kept pushing forward. We didn’t have a lot of subs, and you could tell that we were gassed, but they just kept fighting. I couldn’t be more proud of how we played tonight.”

Mid-Prairie 6, Tipton 1

Five different players scored for Mid-Prairie during a 6-1 win over Tipton on April 13. Kaitlin Martin scored a goal and had an assist for Mid-Prairie, who led 4-1 at halftime. 

Senior Katrina Curtiss found the net with her only shot attempt of the game. Sophie Baker and Lorelei Lueck scored one goal, and Esther Hughes found the net twice. Kina Miller had an assist in the win.