Prep Football: Benton skins Bulldogs' Wildcat offense

If there is more than one way to skin a cat, Benton found just enough ways to slice and dice Harrisburg's Wildcat offense for a 13-9 Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Ohio Division win Friday night at Taylor Field.

The Bulldogs' loss snaps a two-game win streak and now leaves them one loss away from postseason elimination with three games left to play.

Harrisburg (2-4 overall, 2-1) had plenty of opportunities, but squandered chances in both halves with turnovers.

"I have to give Benton credit," Harrisburg head coach Jason Roper said. "They made some plays and we didn't. We had opportunites to score and we didn't. We didn't make plays when we needed too. That's pretty much the way the game went."

The Bulldogs finished with four interceptions in the game, three thrown by Corbin Crim and the last coming on what could have potentially been a game winning drive when Noah Vallette was picked off just shy of the endzone on a pass intended for Crim.

On the play before, Vallette put a perfectly placed ball on the numbers for Crim, who had clear space to the endzone, but dropped the pass.

Benton was called for holding on the play, placing the ball at the Rangers' 30-yard line where Vallette threw the interception with just 13.9 seconds left to play.

Benton (2-4 overall, 1-2) got a pair of interceptions from Kruz Hayes and a pair of touchdowns from the Ranger junior in the third quarter as Benton built a 13-0 lead.

Harrisburg answered in the fourth quarter as Crim scored out of the Wildcat down the right sideline for a 3-yard score with 9:58 to play in the game.

Harrisburg's only other points came with 4:00 to play when Benton's Hamilton Page was called for intentional grounding while in the endzone, resulting in a safety for the Bulldogs.

On the night, Crim continued to put Harrisburg in good field position with precision-like returns on punts, but little to show for on the scoreboard as Benton stacked the box in the Bulldogs' Wildcat formation.

"We had some drives going and we'd make a mistake, we'd either turn the ball over or something. I thought for the most part, our defense played okay, but too many times, our offense put our defense in bad situations. We just could not find a way down the stretch to get in the endzone. I think a lot of it had to do with us just shooting ourselves in the foot."

Harrisburg will look to keep its playoff hopes alive as they travel to Murphysboro this Friday. The Bulldogs close out the season against Herrin and Carbondale, both of which will be played at Taylor Field.

Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.

Benton 0 0 13 0 - 13

Harrisburg 0 0 0 9 - 9

Scoring Summary

Third Quarter

BEN- TD Hayes 1 run (Bishop kick), 7:12

BEN- TD Hayes 1 run (kick failed), 2:44

Fourth Quarter

HBG- TD Crim 3 run (Owen kick), 4th 9:58

HBG- Safety (Intentional grounding in end zone), 4th 4:01

Team Statistics

BEN HBG

First Downs 12 12

Total Net Yards 196 164

Rushes-yards 48-156 55-164

Passing 40 0

Comp-Att-Int 2-7-0 0-5-4

Penalties-yards 9-85 5-55

Fumbles Lost 1 1

Individual Statistics

Rushing- BEN: Page 18-45, Hayes 13-38, Kelley 7-26, Kulich 7-32, Bennett 2-7, VanHoorebeke 1-8. HBG: Crim 18-50, Crisenbery 11-34, Hicks 6-29, Marler 13-24, McGowan 2-17, Carrigan 4-8, Vallette 1-2.

Passing- BEN: Page 2-7-0 40. HBG: Crim 0-4- 3 0, Vallette 0-1-1 0.

Receiving- BEN: McDaniel 1-24, Kelley 1-16.