By Douglas Miles
IOWA CITY
Mid-Prairie knew it would have to play well to defeat Iowa City Regina on the Regals' home field.
It was a struggle all game long, and as a result, the Golden Hawks experienced defeat for the first time this season.
"They are a really good defensive team," Mid-Prairie Coach Pete Cavanagh said after the Golden Hawks were routed, 35-7, in a non-district prep football game Friday night at Regal Field. "Physical up front, so for us we weren't consistent in the running game, so that kind of put us off schedule and our passing game wasn't clicking tonight."
Mid-Prairie (2-1) managed 189 yards of total offense, with just 31 coming through the air. Senior tailback Braden Hartley entered the game ranked second in Class 2A with 417 rushing yards, but was held under a hundred for the first time in three games.
Hartley finished with 93 rushing yards – 77 in the first half – and one score.
"When they have those four people up front and the backers pushing up, it puts more pressure than our offensive line can really handle," Hartley said. "Our offensive line still did phenomenal and we found little seams and we were able to run the ball a little bit. They are just a tough team."
Regina (2-1) scored three long touchdowns – one in each of the first three quarters – and built a 21-0 lead. Regina receivers Jackson Naeve and Steven Liu each caught 40-yard touchdown passes from junior quarterback Gentry Dumont, while Jack Tierney fielded a snap from the quarterback position and raced 38 yards for another Regals' score.
"On defense, we just gave up a few too many big plays," Cavanagh said. "It is just a good team. Good, solid team that you have to be able to rise up and make tackles and make catches and we just weren't able to do that tonight."
The Hartley score was set up by the Golden Hawks' special teams unit, which corralled the Regina punter and brought him down at the Regals' 10-yard line. Hartley's two-yard scoring plunge three plays later cut the Mid-Prairie deficit to two scores, but it never got closer.
"We are going to remember this for the rest of the season," Hartley said. "Most importantly, we are going to see the mistakes that we made and try and correct them."
Mid-Prairie quarterbacks were intercepted twice in each half, including once in the Regina end zone with just 20 seconds left in the first half and the Golden Hawks vying to cut a 14-0 deficit in half.
"They got pressure on us," Cavanagh said. "We dropped a few, we missed a few. We obviously need to get better at that."
Seniors Collin Miller and Cain Brown each recorded interceptions for Mid-Prairie, which received five votes in the latest Associated Press Class 2A rankings and will open district play Friday at Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont. Brown also collected five receptions for 31 yards.
Regina closed out the scoring with a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns.
"We didn't play a clean game tonight and that has to change if we are going to try to beat good teams," Cavanagh said. "It is what it is, we'll get better. These kids are resilient. We have had a good preseason here, 2-1, so we need to bounce back and get right back after it."
Iowa City Regina 35, Mid-Prairie 7
AT REGAL FIELD
MP ICR
First Downs 12 10
Rushes-yards 43-158 32-126
Comp-Att-Int 5-22-4 11-20-3
Passing yards 31 0
Total yards 189 0
Punts-avg. 3-33.6 0-0.0
Fumbles-lost 2-0 1-0
Penalties-yards 7-55 4-45
Mid-Prairie 0 0 7 0—7
Iowa City Regina 7 7 7 14—35
ICR – Jackson Naeve 40 pass from Gentry Dumont (Evan Lacina kick)
ICR – Steven Liu 40 pass from Gentry Dumont (Evan Lacina kick)
ICR – Jack Tierney 38 run (Evan Lacina kick)
MP – Braden Hartley 2 run (Cain Brown kick)
ICR – Jackson Naeve 3 pass from Jack Tierney (Evan Lacina kick)
ICR – Ronan Poynton 4 run (Evan Lacina kick)
Individual Statistics
RUSHING – Mid-Prairie: Braden Hartley 20-93, Collin Miller 12-27, Lukin Rediger 4-8, Cain Brown 4-8, Landon Sullivan 3-18, Kaden Meader 0-4; Iowa City Regina: Jack Tierney 14-77, Gentry Dumont 5-30, Chris Waikel 1-2, Levi Daniel 8-22, Ronan Poynton 3-13, Evan Lavina 1-(-18).
PASSING – Mid-Prairie: Collin Miller 5-21-3-31, Brady Weber 0-1-1-0; Iowa City Regina: Gentry Dumont 10-18-1-154, Jack Tierney 1-2-1-3.
RECEIVING – Mid-Prairie: Cain Brown 5-31; Iowa City Regina: Jackson Naeve 4-57, Levi Daniel 2-22, Jack Tierney 3-32, Steven Liu 1-40, William Aitchison 1-6.
