Prep Football: Bulldogs season comes to close with loss to QND
Taylor Field had been a special place this fall for the Harrisburg Bulldogs. Heading into Saturday's opening round Class 4A playoff matchup with Quincy Notre Dame, the Bulldogs were unbeaten in their friendly confines.
But that home field mystique couldn't stop QND senior halfback Ben Nord. Nord rushed for over 380 yards and scored six touchdowns as Harrisburg's season came to a close with a 47-28 loss to the Raiders on Halloween.
"We knew all year that we had trouble with teams that ran right at us," said Harrisburg coach Al Way. "Going into today's game, that was a big concern. We tried to make some adjustments defensively. They hurt us with a couple of big pass plays where we blew our coverage. We played better defense in the second half, but we just got ourselves in such a hole in the first half. It was a combination of lining up wrong and poor tackling."
HHS surrendered 519 yards of offense to Notre Dame, and Nord accounted for 457 of those.
"I've had a lot of great running backs. I've been here for 24 years," said Notre Dame coach Bill Connell. "I think he broke our single-game rushing record, and we wanted to establish the run and stop their run. I don't know if we truly stopped their run a whole lot until we got into the fourth quarter."
Harrisburg had some success moving the football in its own right. The Bulldogs were able to get back the services of leading rusher Tylor Marler who had to exit a Week 8 loss to Herrin with an arm injury.
Marler ran 23 times for 179 yards and scored two touchdowns. He finished his senior year with 1,369 yards on the ground and scored 16 times.
"He's been 70 percent of our offense all year," Way said of Marler. "He's got the great blend of quickness, speed and strength. He just had a tremendous year. I just feel so bad because if he hadn't gotten hurt, his statistics would've been tremendous, but getting him back, it helped us so much. He's a big play guy."
Junior Matt Upchurch, who had been filling during Marler's absence late in the season, carried four times for 81 yards.
"Matt is a guy who kind of got lost in the middle of the season, and really got refocused towards the end," said Way. "When Tylor went down, he had to come in and play and he had some great runs today, and he's only a junior. "
Corbin Crim-Harbison added 80 yards on the ground, with 72 of those coming on a first quarter score that gave the Bulldogs a 15-7 lead.
The Raiders (7-3) outscored HHS 20-7 in the second quarter and led 33-22 at the break.
Sophomore fullback Jordan Bartok was able to bring his club to within 33-28 with a six-yard score in the final minute of the third quarter, but a pair of fourth quarter fumbles and a bigger dose of Nord, did in any chance Harrisburg had of pulling off the win.
The Bulldogs (7-3) were making their 28th playoff appearance in school history, and the first since reaching the 4A semifinals in 2012.
Despite coming up short in the postseason opener, Way still says this year's club accomplished quite a bit after struggling through a 2-7 campaign just a year ago.
"It's been a lot of fun. It's been a long season," said Way. "You forget when you're coaching the lower levels, how long the varsity season is, but the kids have made it so pleasant because they bought in to what we were doing. And we couldn't have accomplished what we did this year without our coaching staff. Coach (Greg) Langley, coach (Josh) Allen, and coach (Gabe) Angelly just did a tremendous job. They made my job so much easier. Without their help, I don't know if I could've done it or not."
QND 13 20 0 14- 47
Harrisburg 15 7 6 0- 28
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
HBG- Marler 6 run (Owen kick), 9:14
QND- Nord 1 run (Reis kick), 4:49
HBG- Crim-Harbison 72 run (Bartok 2 run), 4:32
QND- Nord 21 run (2 pt pass failed), 3:09
Second Quarter
QND- Nord 84 run (Reis kick), 9:44
HBG- Marler 80 run (Owen kick), 9:29
QND- Nord 1 run (2 pt pass failed), 3:39
QND- Nord 3 run (Reis kick), 0:33
Third Quarter
HBG- Bartok 6 run (2 pt run failed), 0:58
Fourth Quarter
QND- Nord 7 run (Reis kick), 11:20
QND- Heming 2 run (Reis kick), 0:38
Team Statistics
QND HBG
First Downs 22 16
Total Net Yards 519 449
Rushes-Yards 51-386 43-412
Passing 133 37
Comp-Att-Int 4-10-0 3-8-1
Penalties-Yards 9-50 8-48
Fumbles Lost 1-1 3-2
Individual Statistics
Rushing- QND: Nord 42-382, Shierling 1-4, Heming 3-0. HBG: Tylor Marler 23-179, Jordan Bartok 10-49, Noah Vallette 3-23, Matt Upchurch 4-81, Corbin Crim-Harbison 2-80, Aaron Stephens 1-(-1).
Passing- QND: Heming 3-9-0 76, Nord 1-1-0 57. HBG: Noah Vallette 3-8-1 37.
Receiving- QND: Nord 1-18, Tappe 2-58, Hyre 1-57. HBG: Tylor Marler 1-2, Blake Drue 1-12, Austin Hefner 1-23.