DUBUQUE – Twelve months ago, the Cedar Rapids Prairie Hawks were a 5-13 team that couldn't get into a regional final unless they bought a ticket.They were playing a figurative million miles from the Iowa state tournament.

Even comparing the two team photos, you wouldn't recognize these kids a year later.

“It was their commitment to each other” that made the Hawks' 180 possible, new coach Doug Graham said Monday night.

Prairie's remarkable 13-win comeback season ended in the Class 3A Region 6 final at Dalzell Field in Dubuque. At midfield facing a surging fourth-ranked Dubuque Hempstead team, the No.9-ranked Hawks found the far side of the pitch to be the other side of the ocean.

And for as far as they've come this spring, the Hawks found the road to state flat-out roadblocked by a dominating Mustang team playing its best soccer of the season.

Prime scoring opportunities were rare for Prairie as the Mustangs galloped to a commanding 5-0 victory and the Class 3A Region 6 championship.

Holly Bitter netted a hat trick and precision-passing Alesha Duccini set up three goals off masterful corner kicks as Hempstead (16-2) steamrolled to its second consecutive state berth with its 11th straight victory. The Mustangs claimed this one in the air.

“The aerial assault is what did it,” Graham said.

For the Hawks (13-4), there was no jump-starting the bus to Des Moines after they opened the game with a dead offensive battery. Monday was a bummer case of deja vu for Prairie. Like their 4-0 shutout of the Hawks on May 16, Hempstead controlled this Dual for Des Moines from start to finish.

Hawks scoring leader Hannah Kousheh (17 goals) labored to get quality touches on the ball. The star junior had a Hempstead security escort almost everywhere she roamed Monday night. Kousheh tested brilliant Hempstead keeper Kaylee Coble twice but not with her best shots.

Nearly cutting off the midfield entirely, the Mustangs limited Prairie to one shot on goal in the first half with Coble easily stopping Kousheh's free kick that she curled around the Hempstead wall but into the waiting arms of the perfectly positioned Coble.

The Mustangs' quick opening salvo 7:05 into the game proved to be all the scoring they would need. Bitter sipped a header to Prairie keeper Kendra Gaskill's left off Alesha Duccini's beautifully placed corner kick to give Hempstead a 1-0 lead.

The Prairie defense did a valiant job keeping the relentless Hempstead attack off the scoreboard until a critical marking breakdown in the half's waning moments allowed Rachel Bybee to bury a beautiful ball into the high center back net off a Courtney Beringer cross.

Hempstead kept bringing the fire to open the second half. Again, it was Duccini – one of the state's best playmakers with 20 assists - lighting the fuse. She fired a spot-on corner to Allison Bitter, who essentially sealed the game with a golden header 2:05 into the second half. Just under seven minutes later, Duccini found Holly Bitter with another radar corner to extend the lead to 4-0. Hempstead routinely won the battle for the ball by outmuscling this young Prairie team.

“They were physical with us. We had to be physical with them,” said Duccini, a sureshot all-stater who also has 14 goals. “We wanted to keep our ground, get (the ball) out wide and get shots on them.”

With Gaskill out of position, Holly Bitter – who was actually scoreless on the year entering the game – iced the game at 31:52 of the second half by rushing and reaching an empty goal.

“I wanted to get her one goal,” Allison Bitter, Holly's sister, joked. “It was very timely on her part to get three goals (in a regional final).”

Hempstead's strong ball control limited the Hawks to six shots on goal.

Monday wasn't their night, but this spring was the Hawks' season. They bought all into the colorful Graham's “Moe Knows” English soccer philosophy. They learned how to win close games, claiming eight one-goal contests, including a 2-1 playoff win over Cedar Rapids Washington. They got tough.

And the most exciting part: Prairie projects to return 19 players, including four of the Mississippi Valley Conference's top talents in Kousheh, junior Adelaide Bayne and freshmen Paige Pritts and Cayla Renwick.

Check back with these Hawks in a year. If they keep ascending at this rate, you still might not recognize them.

“We're right there,” Graham said. “We're really excited.”