The Mid-Prairie girls were dominant, both in time of possession and on the scoreboard, at home for the first time on Thursday.
Esther Hughes scored five times in the Golden Hawks’ 9-1 …
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The Mid-Prairie girls were dominant, both in time of possession and on the scoreboard, at home for the first time on Thursday.
Esther Hughes scored five times in the Golden Hawks’ 9-1 win over Columbus.
With the poor weather over the last two weeks, Mid-Prairie spent a lot of time practicing indoors, but the Golden Hawks quickly adjusted to the new playing surface in Wellman.
“This was the first time we played on the field — on the grass,” Mid-Prairie coach Justin Barthelman said. “We scrimmaged on turf and played our first game on turf, so it was a little different with the ball… we kind of got underneath it a couple times.”
The Golden Hawks quickly built a 4-0 lead just 15 minutes into the game. All nine goals came from Mid-Prairie seniors, including three from Kaitlin Martin.
“We had a lot of good communication and a lot of runs and through balls,” Martin said about the fast start.
“I feel like we did a good job getting our eyes up and seeing where everyone was on the field, and just being a team up there. And I feel like we did really good attacking in that first half.”
Mid-Prairie led 5-1 at the break and scored four more times in the second half, including a free kick that defender Evelyn Gerber kicked directly into the goal.
Gerber and Julia Boller each had two assists in the win. Hughes and Leah Bontrager, who are also seniors at Hillcrest Academy, each had an assist as well. Freshman Lydia also assisted on one goal.
“I thought we did well connecting passes and kind of just possessing and playing the ball around,” Barthelman said. “I thought Esther and Kaitlin played really well.
"(Kaitlin) was able to break free and put a couple away and Esther is just kind of a workhorse and just goes. Some of her goals are just effort. Julia played well up there, she possessed the ball quite a bit, and I thought Paityn Jennings played well, she was all over the field.”
Senior goalkeeper Ainsley Lueck needed just seven saves to preserve the 9-1 win.
“Our defensive play was pretty solid,” Barthelman said. “Evelyn and Leah (Bontrager) are pretty solid back there. I thought it was just an overall good game. We had people in different positions and we tried a little different formation tonight.”
The Golden Hawks play back to back days this week, welcoming Monticello to Wellman for an RVC match on Friday.
