On a rainy, humid, Thursday night in Iowa City, the Little Hawks defeated the Cedar Rapids Prairie Hawks 27-23 for City’s homecoming game.

The Little Hawks improved to 1-5 with the win, 1-1 in districts.

“It feels really good, I’m happy for the kids, it hasn’t been easy being Little Hawk football players lately, but tonight it was a team effort,” City’s head coach Dan Sabers said after the game.

The Little Hawks got off to a fast start, leading 21-6, at halftime, thanks in part to their strong ground game, led by QB Nate Wieland ‘17, who finished with 185 yards. The Little Hawks finished with 286 yards rushing. Prairie, however, scored 17 unanswered to take the lead midway through the fourth. Prairie’s Dakota Simonsen caught a 28 yard touchdown pass, and Prairie WR Jojuan Simpson’s 7 yard run made it 21-20 at the end of the third quarter. After a 47 yard field goal by Prairie’s kicker Samuel Drysdale, the score was 23-21.

The Little Hawks kept fighting, and City got the ball back with 3:57 left. They drove down, thanks to strong running by RB Michael Fredieu, who finished with 98 yards on the ground. Fredieu scampered in from 3 yards out for the go ahead score. Prairie got another chance, but the pass was intercepted by DB Naeem Smith ‘17. Prairie used their timeouts, and got the ball back with time for one more play. The Hail Mary was knocked down by the Little Hawks to seal the win.