Jones and Hartley pull double duty in Mid-Prairie wins

By Jeff Yoder
Posted 4/27/22

WELLMAN

The No. 1 Golden Hawks stayed unbeaten with a 10-0 victory over Anamosa on Tuesday, led by a three-goal day from senior Gunnar Gingerich. 

While the scoring went as expected in the …

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Jones and Hartley pull double duty in Mid-Prairie wins

Posted

WELLMAN

The No. 1 Golden Hawks stayed unbeaten with a 10-0 victory over Anamosa on Tuesday, led by a three-goal day from senior Gunnar Gingerich. 

While the scoring went as expected in the matchup between top-ranked Mid-Prairie and the winless Blue Raiders, it was a particularly eventful and exciting afternoon for midfielder Braden Hartley and goalkeeper Justice Jones. 

At kickoff, the multi-sport athletes were both a half mile away from the soccer fields — warming up for the shuttle hurdle relay at the high school track. 

They ran the relay before Jones and his parents were recognized during the senior night ceremony on the track. 

“After being announced, I ran to my car and drove to the fields,” Jones said. “We changed in our cars and got there shortly after the second half started. They had a comfortable lead and as soon as we were ready the coaches got us in.”

Hartley and Jones set a new season-best time in the relay and took first place as Cain Brown came from behind in the final leg to win easily. The Golden Hawk soccer players and coaches congratulated Hartley and Jones when they arrived.

“The support we have from the members and coaches on each team is pretty cool, we split time but none of them seem to mind and they work with us and with each other really well,” Jones said.

By the end of the night, the relay’s points helped the Mid-Prairie track team tie Mediapolis for first place in the invitational.  

The Golden Hawk soccer team already had a 6-0 lead when Hartley and Jones entered the game. Hartley took two shots and scored his second goal of the season in his limited minutes. 

“Even though we’re playing him as a holding midfielder, he’s learning how to read the opportunity to move high and actually become a center mid attacking,” Mid-Prairie coach Pat Cady said. “He’s had some good shots this year and he’s also gotten some goals and some assists. And just being able to sneak an extra guy high out of the middle unmarked, it just makes your team even more dangerous.”

Noah Ford scored twice and assisted on two more. Jack Pennington scored twice and is tied with Alex Bean for a team-high seven goals this season. Owen Trimpe had a goal and an assist, and Beau Flynn scored a goal as well. Sawyer Hough, Daniel Rodgers and Bean each had an assist in the win. 

Gingerich ended the game early with a header off of a corner kick. 

“He was probably about 18 to 24 inches higher than the goalkeeper, heading the ball,” Cady said. “So that just shows you  how hard he’s working and how determined he is in the box to be that guy that can put that header in for us.”

Gingerich took eight shots on Tuesday and scored three times, giving him five goals for the season. 

“Gunnar just finally got paid for all the hard work he does,” Cady said. “It doesn’t matter if he scores or he doesn’t score, you know what you’re going to get out of Gunnar because he performs 110 percent every game. 

“I’ve never seen a kid in the history of Mid-Prairie get fouled and beat up as much as he does. And unless he is hobbling and down to one leg, that kid refuses to come off and he will continue to give you everything that he can.”

Jones was in the goal for the final 30 minutes of the shutout. The Golden Hawks have not allowed a goal since the season opener at Williamsburg. Freshman Andrew Kaufman made the start in goal on Tuesday and had all three of Mid-Prairie’s saves. Kaufman has made seven saves without allowing a goal in 134 minutes this year. 

“Andrew Kaufman did a really good job stepping in, and he had some saves early in the game,” Cady said. “This was the second time that he started for us because of Justice being gone. And  he settled down quite a bit and he’s actually getting comfortable with our defense playing the ball back to him. He’s not as nervous now when we’re passing back to him and helping to build out.”

The Golden Hawks have taken advantage of the lopsided scores to empty the bench in the last three games, and also had players step into new roles due to injury the last week. 

“When we played against Keokuk, Gunnar didn’t play and we had some kids step in. Tucker (Miller) has been hurt for the past week and a half. And Hugo Banuelos has played extremely well. It’s going to be hard to push him out of the starting lineup because he’s done so well in place of Tucker. So just hats off to the kids for that. One kid gets out of the lineup and we’ve got one or two more that can fill in and continue to keep our team solid.”

Mid-Prairie (7-0) traveled to Highland (1-7) on Tuesday, and will host Cascade (4-5) on Friday.