The postseason doesn’t begin for nearly two weeks but if Mid-Prairie wants to accomplish their goals the rest of the season, they have no margin for error. They took the first step on Senior night in Wellman Friday, blasting West Burlington Notre Dame 62-0. The game also served as a pink out with the Mid-Prairie community sporting pink shirts and the young men on the field donning pink socks to support cancer awareness.
Mid-Prairie got the scoring underway early, capitalizing on a Falcon pick that Ryan Cortum returned to the West Burlington 14 yard line. Two plays later Reid Miller dialed up a fade to Zach Schwartz to make the score 7-0. The Golden Hawks would take that 7-0 lead into the second quarter where they lit up the scoreboard with 35 points in the frame. Canaan Powell was the first to find the endzone in the second with a 14 yard run to make it 14-0. Less than a minute later Austin Slabaugh scored a pick six from 30 yards out to make it 21-0. Miller tossed his second score of the night, this time to Austin Errthum in the corner of the endzone from 25 yards out to make it 28-0. After another defensive stop Mid-Prairie marched 92 yards in under one minute as Eesaa Baylor blasted in from seven yards out to put the Golden Hawks up 35-0. Mid-Prairie would add a second defensive touchdown when Canaan Powell recovered a Da’shon Johnson fumble and returned it 60 yards for a score as time expired in the half putting the Hawks up 42-0 going into the locker room. After the game Head Coach Pete Cavanagh talked about the big quarter and his team’s balance.
“Offensive line played well, gave us time to throw it, and mixed some run in there as well. Eesaa and Cannan ran the ball well early, and then Reid had some nice passes to Austin Errthum and Zach Schwartz, so if we have a balance like that, that is kind of what we are looking for, ideally, so I was pretty pleased,” Cavanagh said. “Coaches are never really happy, but generally overall tonight I thought we played really well, we crated turnovers, tackled pretty well and got the shutout. I mean getting the shutout is important to us, but we got a lot of kids in and I thought the sophomores played well.”
The second half was more of the same, Mid-Prairie scored on the first play from scrimmage as Baylor raced 34 yards to pay dirt running the score to 49-0. Mid-Prairie’s reserves continued the dominance with lock down defense and high powered offense. Austin Slabaugh tacked on another touchdown from 19 yards out midway through the third to make it 56-0 and Nolan Faselt capped the Golden Hawk scoring with a 19 yard video game like run. The Falcons blocked the extra point leaving Mid-Prairie with a 62-0 win.
The Golden Hawks outgained West Burlington 403 to 151 including 261 to 67 on the ground. Mid-Prairie was led individually on the ground by Baylor’s nine carries for 89 yards and two scores. Reid Miller was seven of 13 through the air for 142 yards and two touchdowns. With the win Mid-Prairie improves to 6-2 on the year 4-1 in district play. The victory clinches a playoff spot for the Golden Hawks. Now that Mid-Prairie is in the post season they will play for seeding next week at West Liberty. The Comets and the Golden Hawks are currently tied for the district runner up spot, the winner of next Friday’s game will get their first round playoff game at home.