For the second straight week Mid-Prairie rallied for a win in the second half Friday night in Wellman. This time Tipton was the victim. The Tigers raced out to a 14-0 lead after a pair of second quarter touchdowns. One was a 57 yard touchdown run from fullback Jacob Challis, the other a five yard touchdown pass from Alex Wiley to Jason Smith. The Mid-Prairie offense had a hard time getting anything going in the first half bothered by penalties, a pair of fumbles, and two missed field goals. The Golden Hawks were able to break through right before halftime when Zach Schwartz grabbed a one yard touchdown throw from Reid Miller to make it 14-7 going to the locker room.
Out of the break Mid-Prairie called on Austin Errthum who delivered a 72 yard touchdown run on a sweep to tie the game at 14. In the second half the Golden Hawks made defensive adjustments to keep Tipton off the scoreboard and took their first lead of the night with 5:41 left when Schwartz hauled in his second touchdown pass of the night making the score 21-14. Mid-Prairie stopped Tipton on the Golden Hawk 28 yard line with under two minutes to play to secure the win. Mid-Prairie won with a total team effort, getting great individual performances up and down the line up. Following the game Head Coach Pete Cavanagh highlighted some of those efforts and talked about the importance of his team’s combined performance.
“We have guys that step up every week, it’s not a one man show, and we kind of like the fact that we don’t have a 1,000 yard rusher right now we can thrown and run. Reid Miller didn’t play great at all times, but when he did it was what we needed, and Austin [Errthum] missing two field goals, that is tough on anybody, and he came back on the first run in the second half and made a heck of a run, we had some nice blocks by Canaan Powell and some other kids out there, and that is what we need, we need kids to step up and when you have seniors that’s kind of what you expect and I was really proud of them,” Cavanagh said.
Mid-Prairie was led by Eessa Baylor’s 127 yards on 19 carries. Reid Miller was 12 of 18 through the air for 162 yards and two scores. Austin Errthum had 166 combined yards rushing and receiving. With the win Mid-Prairie is now 4-1 and will host Columbus for homecoming next Friday.