It was a tough road trip for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys and girls soccer teams Monday, traveling to Maquoketa for a River Valley Conference set with the home Cardinals.
The girls took the pitch first with the No. 11 team in 1A scoring a 1-0 win over the Hawks. Things were deadlocked scoreless at halftime. The lone tally went on the board in the 45th minute with Semiya Gill beat the Golden Hawk defense on an assist from Maelyn Kluever. The Cardinals made that solo goal stand up as the difference in the win. Mid-Prairie head girls soccer coach Truman Shetler spoke with KCII Sports about the fact that while it’s still a loss, there were some building points to take for his team.
Shetler said, “Niva (Helmuth) is so good in goal. We knew that she was going to have to step up and play big. She made five or six pretty incredible saves to keep it at 0-0 for as long as it was. Sam (Wunderlich), Gwen (Wunderlich) and Madison (Reinier) all stepping up as defenders and then Ahna (Townsend) playing shadow on Kluever. Offensively, I think our most dangerous players were Meadow (Flynn) and Kealy (Roberts). Both had several opportunities. Brooklyn (Schneider) did a good job in the middle helping shadow, playing through-balls and winning the ball. Avery (Helmuth) is always great on the outside. It seems like it’s the middle of the season, but really, it’s still pretty early. That was only the fifth game of the year. Having a road test like that against a ranked team, it’s good to get a measuring stick of where we’re at, what we need to do to improve. Get that experience, facing a really good player and a really good team where we have the next couple of weeks with a busy schedule.”
The Golden Hawks finished with five shots on goal and a pair of corner kicks. Kealy Roberts and Meadow Flynn each generated a pair of shots on goal. The Mid-Prairie defense was anchored by keeper Niva Helmuth who turned in an incredible 20 save performance. The loss snaps the Hawk’s three match winning streak and leaves them at 3-2 for the year while Maquoketa remains unbeaten at 4-0.
The Cardinals completed the sweep in the nightcap with a 3-0 win over the Golden Hawk boys. The lead was Maquoketa’s at the break 1-0 and the Cardinals found a pair of insurance tallies after intermission to salt away the contest. The Golden Hawks finished with 10 shots on goal and five corners. Matthew Troyer, Luis Garcia, Ashton Townsend and Zion Price each generated a pair of shots on goal. Mac Yoder made 10 saves as the Mid-Prairie keeper. The loss drops Mid-Prairie to 2-2-1 as Maquoketa climbs to 3-2-1.