Prep Football: Bulldogs turn tide in second half to take down Boonville

Bulldogs turn tide in second half to take down Boonville

HARRISBURG- SIRR Ohio conference play doesn't start until a Week 4 Homecoming date with West Frankfort for the Harrisburg Bulldogs, but Friday night at Taylor Field, HHS continued its success against another Big Eight Conference School (Indiana). After picking up a road win at Mt. Carmel to begin the season, Harrisburg managed to do all of the scoring in the second half for a 21-14 Week 3 win over Boonville, Indiana at Taylor Field.

The Bulldogs (2-1) rushed for 254 yards as a team while sophomore quarterback Isaac Crabb completed five passes for 62 yards and a touchdown.

Already trailing 14-0 out of halftime, Crabb's 39-yard toss to senior Kent Cletcher turned the momentum and got Harrisburg on the scoreboard early in the third quarter.

"They were doing such a good job of jamming our guys and mixing up fronts," said Harrisburg coach Gabe Angelly. "They put nine or 10 in the box at times and were blitzing like crazy. They were really doing a good job of trying to alter our game-plan. We came out and got a couple of first downs there and the big pass from Isaac (Crabb), that opened things up because it seemed like they started to back up. We threw a couple of balls. We didn't complete them all, but we at least backed them up so they only had seven or eight in the box, and we just wore them down."

Harrisburg senior Jordan Bartok ran in a 3-yard score on the first play of scrimmage to begin the fourth quarter and promptly ran in a two-point conversion to tie the contest.

Bartok finished with 114 yards on 25 carries, while senior Hunter Smith racked up 85 rushing yards.

It was sophomore tailback Carl Russ who scored the eventual game-winning touchdown from 4-yards out with 5:51 to play.

Russ finished with 68 yards on just 12 carries for the Bulldogs.

The Pioneers (1-3) had some missed opportunities in the contest, including a missed 25-yard field goal attempt just before halftime.

Boonville also had two costly turnovers in the fourth quarter. The Pioneers coughed up the football near midfield with just over four minutes to play. Harrisburg was able to ice the game when Noah Mayer picked off quarterback Brandon Schnuck with just over one minute to go in regulation.

"We were going to make sure we had guys in position to where we didn't give up big plays," said Angelly. "I think over the last couple of years, you can be in a little bit of danger when you play man. You get everybody in a box and they break one tackle and then they're gone. This defense, it does bend. It does give some here and there, but we told our kids that we want to make them drive on us, go the length of the field, and if you earn it, you earn it. We want you to earn that touchdown. We're bending and not breaking, we're coming up with plays when we need to, stops when we need to. I'm just proud of these guys."

Schnuck completed 11 passes for 138 yards while the Pioneers ran 36 times for 145 yards as a club.

Junior Luke Conner accounted for 120 of those rushing yards and also added a score.

Harrisburg has now won two out of the previous three meetings again Boonville and will shift its attention to West Frankfort to open league play as it closes a three-game homestand. 

"I think our goal every year is to be 2-1 after the first three games," said Angelly. "We play a tough schedule, we don't have easy wins that we went and found somewhere, so to finish 2-1 puts us in a great situation."

Harrisburg 21 Boonville, Indiana 14

Boonville 7 7 0 0 --14

Harrisburg 0 0 6 15 - 21

BV - Schnuck 15 pass to Rinehart (Ewin kick), 1st 0:42

BV- Conner 1 run (kick failed), 2nd 7:41

HBG- Crabb 39 pass to Cletcher (kick failed), 3rd 10:29

HBG- Bartok 3 run (Bartok 2-pt run), 4th 11:52

HBG- Russ 4 run (Cowsert kick), 4th 5:51

Team Statistics

First downs: BV 14, HBG 20.  Penalties-yards: BV 7-65, HBG 6-40, Fumbles-lost: BV 1, HBG 0.

Individual Statistics

RUSHING-BV, Conner 27-120, Beavin 5-27. HBG, Smith 17-85, Bartok 25-114, Russ 12-68, Crabb 1-(-2), Mayer 2 (-2), Cowsert 1-(-9).

PASSING-BV, Schnuck 11-16-1 138. HBG, Crabb 5-7-0 62.

RECEIVING-BV, Farmer 4-55, White 3-48, McKinney 2-19, Rinehart 1-15, Hicks 1-1. HBG, Smith 1-(-12), Russ 2-21, Cletcher 1-39, Morris 1-14.