MID-PRAIRIE FOOTBALL

Golden Hawks score shutout win in district opener

By Paul D. Bowker
Posted 9/21/22

EDDYVILLE

The cheers started early from the Mid-Prairie side Friday night in a rural southern Iowa town.

Braden Hartley, a senior running back, rushed for five touchdowns and helped the …

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MID-PRAIRIE FOOTBALL

Golden Hawks score shutout win in district opener

Posted

EDDYVILLE

The cheers started early from the Mid-Prairie side Friday night in a rural southern Iowa town.

Braden Hartley, a senior running back, rushed for five touchdowns and helped the Golden Hawks to a dominating 49-point first half against Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont.

Landon Sullivan, a junior, and Jarron Thomas, a junior, also scored rushing touchdowns on a night in Eddyville when Mid-Prairie’s running attack averaged more than 8 yards a play and totaled 235 yards.

However, the crushing blow came on the last play of the game when Mid-Prairie sophomore Burke Berry chased down an E-B-F offensive player and brought him to the ground, preserving a 56-0 and giving the Golden Hawks their third consecutive shutout win over E-B-F.

“Shutout, baby, shutout!” Mid-Prairie head coach Pete Cavanagh shouted in delight as the Golden Hawks gathered for their postgame meeting on the field.

The shutout was the first for Mid-Prairie (3-1) since a 42-0 win over E-B-F last September. In three years, the Golden Hawks have outscored the Rockets, 153-0.

“I think we just won the line of scrimmage,” Cavanagh said. “We could run the ball, we had some good play-action passes early.”

The win came in the first district game of the season for Mid-Prairie, which hosts Central Lee this Friday night as the final dress rehearsal for the annual Class 2A, District 6 battle against defending district champion Williamsburg on Sept. 30.

“District play, that’s the importance of it,” Cavanagh said.

“We’re building for the next couple of weeks,” he added. “Obviously, there’s going to be some big ones in there so it’s a slow build again and we need to get better every week.”

At E-B-F, the Golden Hawks built themselves back up following a loss to Iowa City Regina with a powerful running game fueled by physical line play that the Rockets couldn’t match.

Hartley, whose nine rushing TDs ranks third in Class 2A, ran for 152 yards on just 11 carries. As the rout went on, Cavanagh emptied his bench to get playing time for Mid-Prairie’s backups. Eight different Golden Hawks had rushing carries and sophomore Brady Weber completed a 28-yard pass.

“Even our backups came in and did a good job. Brady Weber had a nice pass down to Ace Peck,” Cavanagh said. “I thought our backups did a nice job.”

Grady Gingerich, a senior receiver, had a 50-yard reception. Cain Brown had the only other Mid-Prairie pass catch as the Golden Hawks went to the ground.

Cobi Hershberger, Peck, Collin Miller and Lukin Rediger each had interceptions. Grady Miller led the Golden Hawks with 4.5 tackles and Hershberger had 4.

 

Mid-Prairie, football