Prep Football: Bulldogs make it eight against Massac County
Eight is great and in this case, eight signifies the number of consecutive wins Harrisburg now has over Massac County as the Bulldogs rolled to a 34-14 win on the road Friday night.
The win for Harrisburg (3-2, 1-1) keeps their hopes at a postseason bid alive at the halfway mark and more importantly, the Bulldogs were able to do so without the services of Jordan Bartok, who was limited on offense and Hunter Smith, who the Bulldogs lost for the season after tearing his ACL in last week's loss to West Frankfort.
Carl Russ picked up the slack in the depleted backfield and accounted for two scores, while Isaac Crabb, Kent Cletcher and Jordan Dalton provided the other touchdowns for Harrisburg.
"We told them all week that they have to come out here and execute, play their game and do what they are supposed to do and if they did that, we should be able to score points," Angelly said of the win. "That's what it came down to tonight and that's what we were able to do. We were able to move the ball effectively, run the ball, play action pass opened up and we were able to hit a couple of nice passes when we needed to in the second half. Defensively, in the first half we played great, aside from one breakdown. It was a great game, we were physical and we did everything we needed to do to win this game."
After Chandler Bowling was able to pick off Massac County's Mason Corzine on the first drive of the game, Russ punched in his first of two scores from two yards out and later Crabb made it 14-0 with a two-yard plunge of his own.
The Patriots (0-5, 0-2) cut the deficit in half when Corzine hooked up with Matt Yates on a seam up the middle for a 93-yard touchdown strike with 7:03 to play in the first half.
From there, it was all Harrisburg as Cletcher then scored from three yards out with 42.3 to play before intermission, giving the Bulldogs a 21-7 advantage.
Russ ran wild on a 30-yard scamper to open the third quarter and push the lead to 28-7 and Dalton found paydirt from three yards out with 9.7 left to play in the third.
Massac County's only other score of the game came with 5:06 to play in the fourth when Corzine found a gap and went 61 yards for a score.
Eliminating the taste of last week's loss to West Frankfort was a priority for Angelly, but not as much as it was making sure his team was on the same page as they look to maintain momentum with a trip to Benton next, followed by Murphysboro, Herrin and Carbondale.
"We feel like we are a better team, but when things start to snowball and going down hill, it becomes one of those things where you have to not only convince the team, but convince yourself and everyone has to be on the same page," Angelly added. "I thought the guys did a good job of that tonight. We were able to dictate the game and I think that is what is important here."
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Register, Eldorado Journal & The Gallatin County Democrat. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.