Tuesday is the opening night of the season on the pitch for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk soccer teams. The Golden Hawk boys will entertain the Highland Huskies in an All-KCII area match up. The Hawks were 10-8 a season ago, advancing to the substate final before falling to Iowa City Regina. As a team last year, the Hawks scored 30 goals and gave up 29, with 24 total assists, 145 shots on goal, 64 corner kicks, five made Pks and an 81% team save percentage. The Golden Hawks had four All-River Valley selections a season ago, returning from the group is Peyton Fox, who as a sophomore was honorable mention All-RVC, leading Mid-Prairie with seven goals, including a playoff hat trick. He also had 36 total shots, 22 on goal. In goal, the Golden Hawks return three with experience as Jacob Flynn, Kale Miller and Caedyn Huston combined for 300 minutes, 18 saves and a 75% save percentage. This week, Mid-Prairie head coach Wyatt Cady talked about what has him most excited for this year’s team, “You can tell the kids already have a bond with each other. You have to buy in as a whole team before you can start seeing success on the field. You have to trust where you’re playing the ball and know that they’ll do their job once they get it and get rid of it. Just knowing that the team building part has a very solid foundation, the communication will be there, and the accountability will be there. That goes a long way!”
Highland was 5-10 last year, their most since since 2015. The Huskies finished 2-7 in the Southeast Iowa Superconference. The Huskies had four All-Superconference choices, all of which return as seniors including first-teamer Jared Diaz who led the team with 13 goals and four assists and Ayden Havel, Logan McFarland and Jaydee Macareno. The Huskies scored 32 goals and gave up 48 last year with 18 assists, 115 shots on goal, 28 corner kicks, one made PK, and a 77% save percentage. The Golden Hawks have won 18 of the 19 all-time meetings between the two schools including a 2-1 victory last year in Riverside.
The Mid-Prairie girls open the season at Grinnell. The Golden Hawks were 7-8 last season. Mid-Prairie scored 30 goals and gave up 35 with nine assists, 111 shots on goal, 49 corner kicks, three made penalties and an 86% team save percentage. The Golden Hawks had five All-River Valley Conference selection, four of which are back including junior goalkeeper Niva Helmuth after 134 saves last year, senior forward Zoey Curtiss and her four goals and two assists, senior midfielder Lydia Beachy who scored four times and senior defender Kyla Karnes. This week, Mid-Prairie head coach Truman Shetler spoke on the KCII PM Sports Page about what has him excited for this season, “The overall numbers are exciting. I think there were 15 to 20 new kids coming in. Having a big group to be able to work with will give us a big group that is willing to push each other.”
The Hawks opponent in the opener is Grinnell. The Tigers were 2-9 in 2023, with no matches recorded last season. Lillian Ford and Isabel Hart are both back after recording a goal and an assist each in the Tigers last campaign. These teams have only met once previously, with the Tigers taking a 4-0 win in 2022.
Both matches start at 5p.m. With the boys in Wellman and the girls at Grinnell.