Photo Courtesy of Mid-Prairie Football Hudl
The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk football team was dominant in all three phases of the game Friday in a 51-0 blasting of Central Lee on a damp night in front of the fans at Dwight G. Sattler Field in Wellman. The Golden Hawks took the game’s first possession and marched the ball 61 yards on 11 plays, finishing with a Collin Miller one yard quarterback sneak for six. It was Miller’s first rushing touchdown of the year, and would be his first of three in the first half. Central Lee started the game with a turnover as Dylan Henry grabbed the first of his two interceptions on the night on the fourth play from scrimmage and returned it to the Hawk 38 yard line. Six plays later, Miller called his number again, from five yards out, to make it 14-0 Golden Hawks. After a Central Lee turnover on downs, the Mid-Prairie sprint out of the gates continued, a five play 50 yard drive ended with a four yard Miller scoring run, his third, to put the Golden Hawks up 21-0 after one.
The second frame continued with Mid-Prairie getting the job done, this time on special teams with Lukin Rediger blocking a Hawk punt and recovering the ball at the eight yard line. Two snaps later, Braden Hartley reached the endzone for the 10th time this year, to put Mid-Prairie on top 28-0. Grady Miller finished the first half scoring for Mid-Prairie and enacted the running clock with a 37-yard scoop and score touchdown for the Golden Hawk defense to make it 35-0 at the break. After half, Mid-Prairie special teams got in on the scoring with Rediger and Terry Bordenave planting the Central Lee punter in the end zone for a safety to push the lead to 37-0. On the next drive, Rediger reached the end zone on a four yard plunge up the middle from fullback to make it 44-0 and the Golden Hawks capped the night by lining senior center Jackson Zahradnek up in the backfield at tailback where he found paydirt from two yards out for his first career touchdown. After the game, Golden Hawk head coach Pete Cavanagh broke down the win. “We made a conscious effort to make sure that we could throw the ball tonight and work on that. Collin Miller is very capable of these kinds of nights. In our scheme, we are going to roll him out a little bit and play action and I thought he had some nice decisions, nice throws. Cobi Hershberger had some nice catches early to get us going. Collin (Miller) being able to run it, just gives us another threat. We’re trying to spread things around a little bit. Braden (Hartley) is going to shoulder a lot of the offense, but the other team knows that as well. We want to find that balance and tonight was a good overall offensive team performance. On defense, we were able to create some turnovers and turn those into points. Lukin (Rediger) and Cobi (Hershberger) are outside linebackers and first year varsity players. They have done a really nice job of making a lot of plays for us. On the back end our DBs are playing pretty well. Dylan Henry was there tonight for a couple of nice interceptions and Grady Miller had the fumble recovery for touchdown.”
Mid-Prairie outgained Central Lee 327 to 66 on the night, including 116 to -6 after half, 199 to 34 on the ground. Collin Miller was six of eight for 111 yards through the air and added three rushing touchdowns. Braden Hartley hit the 100 yard mark on the ground again with 103 on 17 carries and a touchdown. Rediger and Zahradnek had rushing touchdowns, Rediger and Bordenave combined on a safety and Grady Miller had a scoop and score touchdown. Dylan Henry had two interceptions Cain Brown had a pick and three grabs for 59 yards. With the win, the Golden Hawks are now 4-1 overall and 2-0 in district play, as they welcome top ranked Williamsburg to Wellman next week for Homecoming.