Golden Hawks outlast Falcons in opener

By Jeff Yoder
Posted 8/27/22

It wasn’t a perfect start to the season, but Mid-Prairie left West Burlington with a 28-18 win on Friday. 

The Golden Hawk defense did not allow another score after trailing by four …

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Golden Hawks outlast Falcons in opener

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It wasn’t a perfect start to the season, but Mid-Prairie left West Burlington with a 28-18 win on Friday. 

The Golden Hawk defense did not allow another score after trailing by four points at halftime. 

“It's a great teaching game,” Mid-Prairie coach Pete Cavanagh said. “You always want the win, obviously, but I think you can learn a lot from it. 

“We made a lot of penalties in the first half and turned the ball over. So for us, it's a good learning game. And you know, since we didn't have our scrimmage last week, for us this was kind of like our scrimmage.”

Braden Hartley’s second rushing touchdown gave Mid-Prairie the lead for good in the third quarter. Hartley finished with 198 yards on 29 carries for the Golden Hawks, who totaled 283 rushing yards as a team. 

“It's tough, especially against a defense like that where they're kind of keying on him,” Cavanagh said, “and we were able to find a couple of things that worked. I thought our O-line hung in there and got better as the night went on.”

The Golden Hawks trailed 12-7 in the second quarter when pressure off the edges resulted in a five-yard punt by the Falcons. Hartley took advantage on the next play from the 33-yard line. 

“We were having a rough first half and it kind of gave us an opening,” Hartley said about the shanked punt. “That’s all it took for us to get fired up. The line just made a tremendous hole, and I just ran the ball. I wouldn't be able to do it without them.”

Collin Miller completed 5-of-11 passes for 58 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Senior wide receiver Cain Brown caught three of those balls for 39 yards and the game’s first touchdown. Brown made a pair of clutch catches on third and long and had another one wiped out by penalty. 

“They have good defensive backs, but Collin did a great job of finding the open receiver and (coach) Cav — great play calling," Brown said. "We needed that.”

Sophomore receiver Cobi Hersherber gave the Golden Hawks a two-score lead with his eight-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. Hershberger also had a big fumble recovery for the Golden Hawk offense during the go-ahead touchdown drive in the third quarter. 

“Collin did a nice job on some of those (play action passes), and Collin is new as well so we're we're working him in,” Cavanagh said. “He made some mistakes but he never got down on himself and we adjusted and I think he’ll  just get better as we go on.

Brown’s fourth-quarter interception was the dagger with a 10-point lead and 4:45 left on the clock. 

The Golden Hawks defense allowed several big plays during the second quarter: a 21-yard touchdown catch, a 67-yard touchdown run, and a 33-yard completion on 4th-and-4, which set up WB/ND’s third touchdown on the final play of the half. 

“I think we had some first-game jitters,” said senior linebacker Grady Gingerich, who made six tackles. “We had to talk at halftime and really turn things around for us. Our goal was to shut them out in the second half, and we did just that.”