High School Sports

Harding comes back to beat Youngstown

WARREN -- For nearly three quarters, Warren G. Harding looked dead in the water in their first meeting with newly-consolidated Youngstown on Friday night.

However, the Raiders stayed patient and seized their opportunity when it presented itself in the second half. After the Defenders had jumped out to a 12-point lead in the third quarter, Harding rallied with three quick touchdowns over a three-minute span to storm back and knock off Youngstown 20-12 at Mollenkopf Stadium.

"We have a lot of respect for our opponent, and we knew what type of game it would be," Raiders head coach Matt Richardson said. "We knew there would be times we would be down, and we knew there would be times we would be up and we would have to hold onto it. So we just stayed the course. Felt like we had to win two of the three phases of the game, and I think we did that."

The defenses dominated in the first half, as both teams struggled to move the ball consistently. Harding and Youngstown combined for six punts before halftime.

All of the Raiders' offense early on came on the back of tailback Makhi Brogdon, who had 15 carries for 75 yards in the first half and finished with 26 carries for 149 yards and a touchdown.

"He did a phenomenal job of playing team football," Richardson said of Brogdon's workhorse performance. "Those guys up in front of him did a great job banging, banging, banging and he did a good job of chipping away. Our conditioning came into play, and he took it over in the fourth quarter."

Triston Pollard provided the bulk of the Defenders' offensive production in the first half thanks to an early 20-yard run and a 69-yard catch-and-run on a screen pass from quarterback Asuante Mickel that set up either teams' best first-half scoring opportunity.

The long play by Pollard drove Youngstown into the red zone. But after reaching the 2-yard line, Harding's defense stood tall at the goal line to force a turnover-on-downs.

Neither team managed to capitalize on their respective takeaways in the first half either.

Youngstown recovered a fumble by Brogdon in the first quarter, but then went three-and-out. Then Harding's Elias Johnson picked off Mickel on a deep pass late in the second quarter. But the Raiders ran out the rest of the clock and were content to go into the locker room scoreless at 0-0.

After a sleepy first half, the offenses finally woke up in the second half.

Youngstown scored on its opening drive of the third quarter when Mickel hit Cam Colbert all alone behind the Raiders' secondary for a 40-yard touchdown.

The Defenders almost added to their lead with a 56-yard pick-six by Mickel, but three penalties brought the takeaway all the way back deep into their own territory. Youngstown finished with 11 penalties on the night.

"When you dig yourself a hole mentally or physically, it's hard to overcome. You're kind of fighting against yourselves," Youngstown head coach Seth Antram said. "But it's early in the season. We're going to fix that stuff. It's a great atmosphere and it was a great game between two quality teams. Obviously it hurts to lose that one, but I couldn't be more proud of the heart our guys showed."

Shortly thereafter, Harding muffed a punt for their third turnover of the night and Youngstown recovered. Mickel scrambled around for a 51-yard touchdown run three plays later for the 12-0 lead.

"Our gameplan was kind of to get it to the third quarter," Antram said. "Obviously we went up. But a couple costly penalties hurt, a couple mistakes. But you can't ask for a better game between two teams."

The Raiders then managed to flip momentum by taking advantage of a couple short fields for a pair of quick scores in succession. First, Harding quarterback James Jones hit Kai Parker in the back-right corner of the end zone for a 20-yard touchdown completion in the final minute of the third quarter.

Then at the start of the fourth quarter, Brogdon powered in from 4 yards out to give the Raiders their first lead of the night at 13-12.

"We have the best strength and conditioning coach in the country, and he's trained those guys to just keep fighting," Richardson said. "It paid off in the fourth quarter."

Harding gave itself a cushion almost immediately when Antonio Dukes picked off Mickel in the middle of the field and returned the interception 35 yards to paydirt to give Harding a 20-12 advantage it wouldn't relinquish.

"That's why it's a team game. You win two of the three phases," Richardson said. "Our defense did a great job. Our offense picked it up in the second half, and our special teams played pretty well for the most part, other than the fumble."

That pick-six proved to be the nail in the coffin for Youngstown. Despite getting the ball back at their own 30 with 2:55 left, the Defenders turned the ball over on downs, which allowed the Raiders to kneel out the clock.

"We competed and we can compete at a high level in this atmosphere," Antram said. "That's something I wasn't sure some of the players we have [could do], since they haven't been in this element before. But we can compete at this level."

Harding improves to 1-1 and will travel to Massillon Perry next week, while Youngstown drops to 1-1 and will venture to face South Range.