Photo Courtesy of Hillcrest Academy Yearbook
A big second half helped carry the Hillcrest Academy Raven boys soccer team past the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks in the opening round of the Class 1A soccer postseason Tuesday in Kalona. The Ravens got the lone first half goal, taking a 1-0 lead into break. After half, Mid-Prairie drew even in the 50th minute. The Hillcrest response was swift, posting four unanswered goals to lockup the win and advance. After the match, senior Raven goal scorers Mason Helmuth, Mason Bender, Micah Gerber and Andrew Kaufmann joined KCII sports to talk about the win.
Gerber said, “We spent practice time with our clearing and passing. (After Mid-Prairie tied the game) We just came out after that, wanting a goal. Anticipating the ball. Winning the ball.”
Bender continued, “After our Superconference tournament loss to Highland, we took a day off and came back to practice. We thought about how we hated to lose the way we did. I would say (when Mid-Prairie tied the game) it gave us that same feeling back as we had against Highland reminded us how badly we wanted to get that one back. We decided we weren’t going to let them do anything the rest of the match!”
Helmuth added, “We took some time, we got time off. We rested up because a lot of were injured and we needed the time off, now here we are. When we saw one go in for them, we got more aggressive and kept pushing!”
Kaufmann said, “We lost the last two times we’ve played them (Mid-Prairie), so this was a big game for us. A game we wanted to win!”
Hillcrest won shots on goal 10-5 and had six corner kicks. Angel Sambrano, Kaufmann, Bender, Gerber and Helmuth each had a goal for Hillcrest with Gerber and Helmuth adding two assists each and Bender one. Kyle Neuschwander made four saves in the win. The Golden Hawks goal came from Ashton Townsend. Mac Yoder made five saves for Mid-Prairie.
The Golden Hawks end their season at 2-12-2 and say goodbye to seniors Jacob Flynn, Adrian Sanchez Reyes and Traevin Gugel. Hillcrest is now 8-4-2 and advances to next week’s district semifinal on Tuesday in Chariton against the Chargers who are 12-1-2 this year.