The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk football team dropped their first district contest of the 2020 season Friday, falling at No. 2 Williamsburg 24-8. Defenses dominated action early, with the game scoreless one period in. The Raider special teams broke the scoreless tie when they cashed in a Mid-Prairie miscue with a fumble from the punt unit and Riley Holt raced 11 yards for a touchdown to make it 7-0. Each side’s defense continued to dictate the game until the final moments of the first half when Williamsburg put together a nine play, 38 yard drive and Alex Marovets knocked through a season long 34 yard field goal to make it 10-0 Raiders at the break.

In the second half, the Raiders got the games first big offensive play on their first drive when Levi Weldon connected over the top with Jake Weber for a 34 yard touchdown to make it 17-0. The Raiders would add an insurance touchdown on an 85-yard run by Holt around left end through broken tackles to go up 24-0 going to the fourth quarter. On the first play of the final frame, Mid-Prairie got on the board with a Vinny Bowlin to Clarke Latcham 24 yard touchdown connection. With the two point conversion it was back to a two score game at 24-8. Mid-Prairie would get no closer down the stretch, despite turning the Raider offense away the rest of the night, the Hawks would not get on the board again. After the game, Mid-Prairie head coach Pete Cavanagh talked about the defensive effort and what he saw as the difference. “Our front played well. Our linebackers had a good game. Justice Jones had a nice night. So did Reinier. Our front five, Garvey, Wallington, Meader, Connor Shalla, and Michael Kelly were also great. They had trouble running the ball, which was something we absolutely had to slow down. They ended up with a handful of big plays but we just kept putting our defense in bad spots during the night. We knew they were going to load the box so we tried to spread it out and I thought Vinny Bowlin had a nice night. A couple of good runs, some good reads, it’s tough to be successful at the end of the game when you’re down and forced to throw every play. We had some key drops during the night, and way too many penalties on offense.”

The Golden Hawks outgained the Raiders 323 to 272 on the night, and put up 15 first downs to Williamsburg’s 12. At times, Mid-Prairie was their own worst enemy, committing 11 penalties for 90 yards and four turnovers. Those four giveaways turned into 14 Raider points. The Mid-Prairie defense stopped Williamsburg on all three of their fourth down attempts, while Mid-Prairie went 0 of seven on fourth down themselves. Mid-Prairie was led on the night by Vinny Bowlin with 14 carries for 151 yards, he was also 14 of 37 for 160 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions, accounting for more than 300 all-purpose yards. The Mid-Prairie defense posted a dozen tackles for loss, led by Ben Meader with six stops, four for loss and two and a half sacks. Justice Jones led the Golden Hawk D with 10 and a half tackles. Riley Holt led the Raiders with 15 carries for 128 yards and a score. Levi Weldon was eight of 15 through the air for 106 yards and another touchdown. Mid-Prairie is now 2-2 on the year while Williamsburg remains unbeaten at 5-0.