By Douglas Miles
TIPTON
The goals are coming in bunches for Esther Hughes.
The Mid-Prairie senior is no stranger to leading the Golden Hawks' girls' soccer team in goals. Last season, Hughes found the back of the net 21 times as Mid-Prairie matched the school record for wins and got within a match of its first regional final appearance in program history.
This season, the early returns indicate Hughes is capable of outpacing the entire state.
"A lot of it is assists," Hughes said after she posted a first-half hat trick and broke a 4-4 tie with her fourth goal of the match in the 78th minute as Mid-Prairie defeated Tipton, 5-4, Tuesday at Tipton City Park. "Passes. People are getting it into me on my feet and that makes it a lot easier. I am finding a lot of space, so I am just taking those chances. A lot of times it is like pinball enough people, bounce it around and then it comes in and I'm open and I take it."
After scoring five goals in each of Mid-Prairie's victories over Columbus Junction and Monticello, Hughes entered Tuesday tied atop the Class 1A goals scored list alongside Isabel Garcia of Des Moines Christian. She now has 14 through six games for Mid-Prairie and trails only Dike-New Hartford's Camille Landphair – who scored a whopping six goals on Tuesday and now has 19 this season – for the 1A lead.
"She has been playing well," sixth-year Mid-Prairie Coach Justin Barthelman said. "She is one of those players that just goes. Just aggressive and that is what gets her a lot of goals is she is constantly pressuring, constantly going. She is an extremely good workhorse."
Against Tipton, the goals arrived at a frenetic pace in the first half. Hughes opened the scoring before many of the patrons had found their seats, while fellow senior Kaitlin Martin converted a penalty-kick opportunity just over eight minutes into the match that extended the Mid-Prairie lead to 2-0.
After Tipton got within 2-1 in the 23rd minute with a Marissa Tenley goal off a corner kick, Hughes needed just 71 seconds to return the Golden Hawks' advantage back to two goals at 3-1.
"Our defense has got to get more aggressive and win stuff," Barthelman said.
Hughes scored her third goal of the first half in the 37th minute, which was sandwiched between Tipton goals from Chloe Klabo and another from Tenley, and the teams adjourned to halftime with Mid-Prairie clinging to a 4-3 lead.
"They came out in the second half and I told them, 'Tipton is going to come out and play. They are ready to go. Don't be surprised if they put one in on us and then we are going to have to fight,'" Barthelman said. "And that is what happened."
In the second half, neither team budged until the 58th minute when Tipton junior Avery Holstein emerged from a scrum in front of the goal and managed to punch one through that tied the match at 4-4.
"I will give credit to Tipton," Barthelman said. "They came out in that second half and they put a little bit more pressure on us. They were more aggressive in the middle. I thought we just needed to win the ball more in the middle."
Battling a stiff wind for the duration of the second half, Hughes saw her first two shots into the wind sail high. But with just 2:49 left in regulation, Hughes adjusted and found the proper strike angle that pierced the wind and delivered victory for the Golden Hawks.
"I was just taking my open shots," Hughes said. "I think part of it was I took the shot from farther back. Probably helped a little bit. But yes, taking one more second to place it."
Mid-Prairie (3-3) closed the week with a 4-0 loss at Grinnell on Thursday and will resume its schedule Monday with a home match against Central Lee before visiting Anamosa and Northeast later in the week.
"We are just going to keep playing teams and just see how it goes," Hughes said. "We are going to take it as far as we can."
