Photo Courtesy of Jeff Yoder
A tough non-district schedule continues tonight for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks when they travel north to Alburnett for a ranked showdown with the Pirates.
The Golden Hawks were a come from behind winner last week in their Washington County rivalry matchup with the visiting Demons at Dwight G.Sattler Field in Wellman 50-34, beating the Demons for the first time since 2008. The Hawks overcame a 22-6 early deficit. The Demons won the total yards battle 358 to 292, including 220-156 on the ground. Offensive leaders included Hudson Ehrenfelt with a four touchdown night, three on the ground and one on a punt return with 222 all-purpose yards. Brooks Weber was 13 of 16 throwing for 136 yards two scores and a pick. Both touchdowns went to Nolan Jergens who hauled in two passes for 47 yards. Tommy Miller added a rushing score. On defense, the Hawks swarmed the Demons with 10 tackles for loss, six combined from Josh Turner and Ryan Henry. Turner blocked a punt, Jack Sorrell recovered a fumble and Carson Humphrey picked off a pass. The Hawks are ranked No. 8 in Class 2A in this week’s Iafootball.com poll. After one week, the Golden Hawks rank among the top 10 in 2A in 11 different stats including team categories of total touchdowns, rushing touchdowns, completion percentage, total completions, passing touchdowns, total receptions, total tackles, sacks and total tackles for loss. Individually, Ehrenfelt and Weber are top five in 2A in three categories each, Henry, Jergens and Turner one each.
Alburnett is coming off of a 14-0 win over Center Point Urbana a week ago. The game was scoreless at half before the Pirates found their offense with Brody Kaestner going 8 of 13 for 140 yards and a score. Laken Caves pulled in the touchdown pass and ran for another on a night with 152 all-purpose yards on 24 touches. Cooper Franklin led the defense with 10 tackles. Owen Henriksen recovered a fumble and Liam Carolan picked off a pass. The Pirates won total yards 253-218, but were outgained on the ground 166-113. Alburnett is ranked No. 9 in this week’s Class 2A poll from Iafootball.com. After one week, the Pirates are ranked in the top 10 of 2A in nine stats. That includes team categories of completion percentage, yards per catch, sacks and tackles for loss. Individually it’s four categories total between Caves, Franklin and Eaghan Fleshman. This week, Golden Hawk head coach Daren Lambert gave his keys for Friday.
Lambert said, “They have some size. They have a lot of juniors, but a lot of them played last year. Alburnett bumped up to 2A this year. They have a great running back. They have a couple of other skill position kids that are good and some physical guys up front and in the box on defense. They are a well-rounded football team. They got some love this preseason, like we did, for the success that they had last year and the guys they brought back. We have to be ready to go. We have to be disciplined, we have to compete, we have to have relentless effort to do our job on every single play. Control the ball on offense and create turnovers on defense. If we do those things, we’ll put ourselves in a good spot.”
These teams have met one other time, a 26-0 Golden Hawk win in 1989. You can hear all of the action live tonight on AM 1380, FM 102.5, the KCII2 App and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the LaMorenitas Pregame Show at 6:30p.m. And kickoff at seven from Martin Field in Alburnett.