IOWA CITY

Mid-Prairie was more than halfway through its seventh scoreless quarter to begin the football season when Cobi Hershberger leaped for a ball thrown by junior quarterback Brady Weber last Friday night.

Hershberger went over two Iowa City Regina defenders and caught the ball for a 32-yard pass play at the Regina 1-yard line. Two plays later, Weber followed his offensive linemen into the end zone for the Golden Hawks’ first score of the year.

The touchdown temporarily put a dent into a Regina offensive showing that resulted in a 51-19 Regals victory, but it also cranked up a Mid-Prairie offense that scored three touchdowns in less than one and a half quarters.

The Golden Hawks finished the night with a 20-yard scoring pass from backup quarterback Gentry Bontrager to junior receiver Blake Swart as time ran out on the clock.

“We’ve got guys that can catch the ball,” Mid-Prairie head coach Daren Lambert said. “Big physical players. Sometimes you’ve got to take chances. Sometimes you’ve got to throw it in tight windows.”

Regina, which won its second straight game and has scored 95 points, took charge early in the game. Rushing touchdowns by Will Aitchison and Jackson Naeve, plus a 25-yard field goal by Emiliano Herrera-Sinnwell, in the first half put the Regals ahead, 17-0.

Naeve’s second TD run, with 4:30 left in the third quarter, pushed Mid-Prairie’s deficit to 23 points.

“They’re just very crisp in everything they do and that’s just kind of the tradition that they have and who they are,” Lambert said of Regina, which has won seven state championships in the last 17 years but failed to get past the first round of the playoffs last year. “They get the ball in the athletes’ hands and move with a good pace.”

Naeve had three receiving touchdowns in addition to his two TD runs. He had 151 yards of pass receiving yardage. Aitchison rushed for 170 yards. Senior quarterback Gentry Dumont, the son of head coach and Mid-Prairie grad Jason Dumont, passed for 280 yards.

But a third consecutive scoreless half (the Golden Hawks were shut out by Wilton in the season opener) seemed to motivate Mid-Prairie.

“We went in at halftime. Six straight scoreless quarters, which isn’t good as an offensive coordinator or as an offense,” Lambert said. “And then you find a way. … Things started clicking a little bit. It’s only two games. A lot of those guys, it’s only their second varsity game, so we’re taking steps forward, but we’ve just got to keep growing.”

The Golden Hawks’ progress was so obvious in the second half that Regina coach Jason Dumont shook his head afterwards and began to wonder how fast the Golden Hawks might be in the next year or two.

Five Mid-Prairie players caught passes, including Swart’s first career touchdown catch. Hershberger caught four passes for a second consecutive week. And also for the second consecutive week, sophomore running back Hudson Ehrenfelt led the Golden Hawks with a grinding 75 rushing yards on 18 carries.

Weber, a junior starting his second varsity game at quarterback, completed 10-of-21 passes for 99 yards.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys coming up through the program,” junior running back and linebacker Landry Gingerich said. “We’ve got some sophomores starting for us that are going to be very solid their senior year.”

“It's a group that is willing to try and be competitive,” Lambert said. “They don’t like losing, like all of us. We’re all in it together. Like I told them in the postgame, we’re all in this together, we’re all going to find a way.”

Mid-Prairie senior Landon Sullivan had a game-high 8.5 tackles.

A challenging early-season schedule sends the Golden Hawks to Sigourney Keota on Friday night. The Cobras were Class 1A quarterfinalists last year. They shut out Mediapolis 21-0 last week.

After that, the Golden Hawks begin their 2A district schedule Sept. 15 against West Burlington.

“We knew the first three games in non-district were going to be extremely difficult,” Lambert said. “Wilton brought back a lot, Regina is a traditional powerhouse, SK is kind of the same way.

“Like I told these guys, it’s not a meaningless game because all games mean something, they’re all important. But we’re really preparing us for that (district play). You learn the most through adversity. When things are easy, you’re not learning a lot.”

GAME SUMMARY

IC REGINA 51, MID-PRAIRIE 19

Mid-Prairie      0     0     7    12  --  19

Regina            14     3     6    28  --  51

R: Will Aitchison 9 run (Emiliano Herrera-Sinnwell kick)

R: Jackson Naeve 2 run (Herrera-Sinnwell kick)

R: Herrera-Sinnwell 25 FG)

R: Naeve 6 run (pass failed)

MP: Brady Weber 1 run (Beau Flynn kick)

R: Naeve 5 pass from Gentry Dumont (Herrera-Sinnwell kick)

MP: Dylan Henry 18 pass from Weber (pass failed)

R: Naeve 19 pass from Dumont (Herrera-Sinnwell kick)

R: Naeve 35 pass from Dumont (Herrera-Sinnwell kick)

R: Savion Miller 38 run (Christopher Dito kick)

MP: Blake Swart 20 pass from Gentry Bontrager

PASSING: Mid-Prairie, Brady Weber, 10-21-99, 1 TD, 1 INT; Gentry Bontrager, 1-1-20, 1 TD; Regina, Gentry Dumont, 17-29-280, 3 TD, 0 INT.

RUSHING: Mid-Prairie, Hudson Ehrenfelt, 18-75; Landon Sullivan, 4-26; Bontrager, 5-24; Regina, William Aitchison, 17-170, 1 TD; Savion Miller, 2-48, 1 TD; Jackson Naeve, 7-32, 2 TD.

RECEIVING: Mid-Prairie, Cobi Hershberger, 4-56; Dylan Henry, 3-29, 1 TD; Blake Swart, 1-20, 1 TD; Grady Miller, 2-5; Ehrenfelt, 1-9; Regina, Naeve, 9-151, 3 TD; Alex Jensen, 4-34; Ty Joss, 2-41.

LEADING TACKLERS: Mid-Prairie, Landon Sullivan, 8.5; Kaden Kos, 7.5; Hershberger, 7.5.