DAVENPORT

Reaching its first regional finals in school history, Mid-Prairie aimed to continue its unprecedented playoff run by earning its first ever appearance at state but the might of No. 3 Assumption proved to be too much to handle.

Punching their ticket to state for the 14th straight season, the Knights (12-4-1) earned a 8-0 victory over Mid-Prairie last Friday.

The first half saw Assumption build up a 5-0 lead and in the second half they added three more to its score all while keeping the Golden Hawks scoreless. Senior Dru Dorsey scored a team high five goals for the Knishy and also recorded an assist.

Assumption was held to its lowest score in these playoffs by the Hawks as they won their last two postseason games by scores of 12-0 and 10-0. Mid-Prairie goalkeeper Niva Hemuth ended the night with 25 saves.

The Golden Hawks finish their season at 7-11-3 and in the offseason they say goodbye to seniors Zoey Curtiss, Lydia Beachy, and Kyla Karnes.

Mid-Prairie 2, Mediapolis 1

It was another upset playoff victory on the road for Mid-Prairie in the second round of the postseason as they earned a narrow victory over Mediapolis (11-6-1) on May 21.

The Golden Hawks struck first when Avery Helmuth scored a header off a corner kick from teammate Kyla Karnes with less than 15 minutes left in the first half.

“We’ve worked on it all year, and this is the first time we’ve been able to finally finish one,” Mid-Prairie coach Truman Shetler said of the first half goal. “It was a great ball in by Kyla, and I was glad that Avery was there. Getting that early goal gave us some confidence, and kind of gave us some knowledge that we belong here.”

In the second half the Bulldogs found their equalizer after converting on a penalty kick opportunity.

With less than 12 minutes left in the half, off a miskick from the Mediapolis goalkeeper, Meadow Flynn found herself one on one with the goalie and before anyone could even blink she blasted the ball into the net for the go-ahead goal and what ended up being the game winner. This was her 11th goal of the season, a team high.

“Meadow saw that it was a short one, and it was to nobody, so she went and just was able to finish it,” coach Shetler said of Flynn’s game winning goal. “That was big time, being able to pay attention to that and staying awake, and then being able to have the composure to finish it too.”

It was another outstanding outing for the Mid-Prairie defense as they only let through one goal and sophomore goalkeeper Ruth Whitthoft ended the night with six saves.

“Looking at our record, you wouldn’t believe it, but we were about probably 30 minutes away from being 12-5 on the season. Instead, we came into the postseason at 4-10-3,” coach Shetler said.

“Knowing that we were in those close games all year, just not able to find the right side of it, I kept having to keep the girls positive. Knowing that, going into these postseason games, we know that we’re able to stick with teams, and just because our record’s bad doesn’t mean we can’t play them.”