It may have taken a month, but that first win feeling overflows any thoughts of anguish or doubt from the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks sideline.

The Hawks did more than win in this 40-18 triumph of the West Burlington Falcons on Sept. 15.

“Each week, we’ve gotten better. You want a week where it just all came together and that was obviously tonight. [We] didn’t start off the way we want, it was real flat. But really excited and proud of the guys fighting adversity and finding a way to get through it,” head coach Daren Lambert, who was all smiles, said after his first head coaching win.

“We saw it last week; they kept fighting back. Tonight, going down 12-0 and putting 40 up, [I’m] just excited for the guys in the way they put in the work tonight,” Lambert added.

Hudson Ehrenfelt put on a show for the Hawks.

Ehrenfelt ran for 183 yards on 25 attempts with five rushing touchdowns. Ehrenfelt added three catches for 42 yards, giving the sophomore over 200 scrimmage yards. That’s not all. Ehrenfelt had two kickoff returns for an additional 56 yards.

The Golden Hawks already knew Ehrenfelt was a force, but this game confirmed getting the ball in his hands is a deadly tactic.

“[Hudson’s] a great player. He’s a guy that doesn’t lack confidence, he knows he’s good. When he starts flowing, then that offensive line gets a little juice going and things just start meshing well,” Lambert said. “Glad he’s on our side of the ball because he’d be a pain if he was on a different side. [I’m] very excited for his success.”

After both teams traded punts to start the game, Mid-Prairie struck first when senior Landon Sullivan forced a fumble, seeing junior Cobi Hershberger recover the ball, the lone turnover of the game.

The Hawks offense was again turned down, punting for the second time. This gave the Falcons the first true strike of the game when they marched down the field for a touchdown catch by Kaiden Dietzenbach.

West Burlington’s quarterback, Caden Schwenker, proved a tough tackle all game. He slipped past the Mid-Prairie defense to find Dietzenbach in the endzone for the score. Schwenker finished the game with 272 yards in the air and two touchdowns, a perfect passer rating.

West Burlington’s Landry Haberichter finished the first quarter with a rushing touchdown to give the Falcons a 12-0 lead after two failed two-point conversion attempts.

The Hawks awoke in the second. Less than a minute in and Ehrenfelt scored his first to bring the Hawks to within five points. Ehrenfelt wasted no time, breaking free for a rushing touchdown of over 40 yards four minutes after his first.

The Hawks have a reliable kicker in senior Beau Flynn. Flynn was 4/6 on PATs. His second attempt seemed good to everyone on the field yet was called wide left by the referees. Flynn had another PAT blocked later on.

The Hawks were near perfect on their first half two-minute drills from both sides of the ball.

“The biggest thing on the defense side, you just don’t want to give up big plays,” Lambert said. “Offensively, we practice with [and without] timeouts. Just moving fast paced and trying to keep things simple when you’re in those moments. When we got a good leader with Brady, sometimes he’s calling those things at the line and receivers are smart enough to know where to be. When you put a lot of like-minded guys together, good things can happen.”

The Hawks went into halftime up 20-12, a complete flip of the script. The Falcons would again strike first in the second half, scoring a touchdown on a fourth and eight play with 5:35 left in the third. A third failed two-point conversion attempt kept it a slim two-point lead for Mid-Prairie.

Brady Weber, Mid-Prairie’s quarterback, showed his poise on the next Hawk possession.

While marching, Weber got the Falcons to jump offsides with a hard count, giving the Hawks a first down within the 10-yard line. The very next play was an Ehrenfelt touchdown run.

“{Brady’s] got better each week. He’s a competitor [and] a good leader,” Lambert said. “He knows the game inside out and we’ll bounce ideas off [each other]. He strives to be better and getting guys in the right spot and just leading out there. [I’m] very proud with his performance and how he’s grown throughout the year.”

From here, the Hawks did not look back.

The next big Mid-Prairie drive was highlighted by Weber shaking and baking the defense, slipping through for a few extra yards. Then, on a fourth and three, alley-ooping the ball to senior Grady Miller for the first down. The drive finished with Ehrenfelt’s fifth touchdown.

With the game already secured, Weber connected with senior Dylan Henry for a wide open and untouched 47-yard touchdown reception to bring the game to the final score of 40-18. It was Henry’s solo reception of the night.

It would be junior Cobi Hershberger who led receivers with seven catches for 88 yards.

Despite the big first win on the year, the Hawks still have some work to do. Specifically on penalties which plagued the Hawks.

“Some of the [penalties], I agree with. Some of them, I wasn’t sure what the heck was going on,” Lambert said about the seemingly endless penalty flags in the Friday night matchup. “It’s the little things. If you screw up, you got to move on to the next play. A lot of [the penalties] are just simple things that we can fix.”

After moving to 1-3, the Hawks will take on Davis County on Friday, Sept. 22. 

GAME SUMMARY

WB 18, MP 40

WB   12       0      6    0  -- 18

M-P   0       20     7   13 -- 40