The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks were run over by Sigourney-Keota in a 62-13 loss at Sigourney last Friday night. The loss is Mid-Prairie’s third straight, dropping their division record to 1-3 and overall record to 3-3.

Where Mid-Prairie took to the field a little banged up, the Savage Cobras brought a team rich in overall numbers, size, and speed. The vaunted single-wing offense gave the Hawks defense fits and Sigourney-Keota ran for 521 yards and seven touchdowns. The confusing plays also helped stand up the defensive front seven, giving clear view of the downfield goal.

The Hawks running game didn’t fare nearly as well as the Savage Cobras defense negated any rushing gains with the stats showing a deficit of 22 yards running on 30 attempts. However, the Mid-Prairie pass offense showed flashes of brilliance, putting together some strong drives to the end zone.

Seth Fisher, in his first game back, completed 15 of 29 passes for 221 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions. Nick Luke, who quarterbacked the final Mid-Prairie possession, was 5-for-6 for 61 yards and a touchdown. Tyrell Gingerich did an excellent job of finding the seams in the Sigourney-Keota pass coverage, catching eight balls for 180 yards and a touchdown.

However, interceptions, dropped passes, and poor blocking which resulted in Fisher getting sacked several times, again helped take the Hawks out of the ball game. An injury didn’t help the line, however, as lineman Jeff Gingerich went down in practice with an injury and was in street clothes Friday night.

Mid-Prairie coach Mark Dalton was pragmatic about the loss. While unhappy about the mistakes his team made, he was quick to credit the Savage Cobras for being stronger and faster than the Hawks and praising the Sigourney-Keota program as being that good.

“They have a good ball club; a lot of quickness that we didn’t handle really well. What it boils down to is how mentally and physically tough you are. Our kids have spent a year in the weight room where their kids have spent three or four in the weight room; that makes a big difference,” Dalton said.

The first quarter was a rough one for the Golden Hawks as Sigourney-Keota took their opening possession from their own 30-yard line into the end zone in just over a minute. Mid-Prairie was three and out on their first possession, punting the ball to the Sigourney-Keota 37. The Savage Cobras were then unable to advance the chains, punting the ball and giving the Hawks possession on their own 14.

Mid-Prairie had moved the ball four-yards when an intended pass from Seth Fisher to Tyrell Gingerich was intercepted and run back for the touchdown, making the score 14-0 following the PAT with 6:23 left in the quarter.

Then Hawks then went through another three-and-out, however this time a bad punt gave the Savage Cobras possession of the ball on the Mid-Prairie 32 yard line. Sigourney-Keota took advantage, scoring their third touchdown of the quarter.

Mid-Prairie’s offense came to life on the ensuing drive as the Hawks kept the Savage Cobras defense on their heels by running a no-huddle offense. Starting from their own 26, the Hawks pushed the ball to the 40 on an Adam Kos catch from Fisher, following which a Sigourney-Keota personal foul penalty advanced it to the Savage Cobras 45. Fisher then connected with Gingerich twice on pass plays of 17 and 21-yards to give Mid-Prairie first and goal. Fisher then found Brent Showalter from the touchdown. The point after attempt was wide and the score stood at 21-6 with 2:42 still remaining in the first quarter.

Sigourney-Keota answered quickly on the following drive, culminating with a 50-yard touchdown run. After the Savage Cobras missed their PAT attempt, the score was 27-6 with 37 minutes still left to play.

They took the ball on their own 35, but this drive was stopped short when a Sigourney-Keota safety stepped through Kos and intercepted the Fisher pass. However, Kos answered in-kind when he intercepted a Sigourney-Keota throw, giving the Hawks the ball back on the Sigourney-Keota 33.

From there, Fisher connected with Gingerich on a 29-yard pass play to move the ball to the four. Kos then pushed it to the two, leaving it for Fisher to sneak in for the TD. Mitch Raber put the ball through the uprights to make the score 27-13.

Sigourney-Keota’s offense had the number of the Mid-Prairie front seven as the Savage Cobras took the ball from their twenty for another quick score, this time coming about from a 44-yard run. 34-13.

Three sacks in a row killed the next Mid-Prairie drive as the Hawks punted on 4th and 25, giving Sigourney-Keota possession on their 27. Again, the single-wing offense tied the Hawks defense in knots as Savage Cobras scored quickly on another long run. After the PAT, the score was 41-13 with 6:19 left in the half.

Fisher was intercepted a third time and the ball was run in for a score a second time, making it 48-13. The Hawks were then three and out again, punting the ball to the Sigourney-Keota 48 where the Savage Cobras scored their eighth touchdown of the half, making the score 55-13 with two quarters to play.

Mid-Prairie came out after the break and mounted an impressive drive. Starting from their own 29, a Fisher to Gingerich catch moved the ball to the Sigourney-Keota 31. Gingerich caught another ball, advancing to the 16. Kos then caught a seven-yard pass, but then the Sigourney-Keota defense tightened and on fourth down with four yards to go, as Fisher to Gingerich pass fell incomplete, giving Sigourney-Keota the ball on downs.

However, the Mid-Prairie defense matched Sigourney-Keota, stopping the Savage Cobras drive on their 16-yard line and forcing the turnover on downs. The Following Mid-Prairie drive ended with a punt to the Sigourney-Keota 24 where the Savage Cobras mounted a string drive down the field, ending with a touchdown at the 5:41 mark in the fourth quarter.

On Mid-Prairie’s final drive of the game, Nick Luke took the reins of the offense and gave the Hawks another touchdown, converting a fourth and four and scoring on a 21-yard pass to Gingerich running the left slant into the end zone.

Midway though the drive, a Sigourney-Keota player suffered a head injury and was taken from the field by ambulance. According to reports from Sigourney coaches, the player had left the hospital after a short time and the injury was deemed not serious.

Sigourney-Keota ran out the clock after the Mid-Prairie touchdown, making the final 62-20.

Dalton reported he was happy with the way the team came out in the second half, keeping hold of a game that could have easily been called early because of a 50-point margin. Dalton was also positive on both of his quarterbacks, Fisher, in his first game back since an injury at Solon, and Luke, who engineered the final touchdown drive for the Hawks.

“I thought Fisher threw the ball well, and then Nick came in there on that last drive and did a real nice job moving the ball. If they have time, our quarterbacks can get the ball to the receivers,” Dalton said.

The team, banged up in recent weeks, came out of Sigourney without serious injury and expects to have all of its players near 100-percent for this Friday’s homecoming game with Columbus. Jeff Gingerich is expected to be back as Fisher, Kos, Kelley, and Huston all continue to heal.

“We came out of this thing pretty healthy and we will be even healthier next week,” Dalton said.

The team also needs to heal mentally after opening the season with three strong wins to losing three-straight. Dalton expects the Hawks to recover, learn and correct mistakes in practice this week, and come out ready for Columbus as well as for the two other remaining games this year.

“You can’t dwell on these things too much, you just have to move on and get on with things.”