Prep Football: Bulldogs hang tough in win over Benton
All things must come to an end - good and bad.
For Harrisburg, a team that had not been playoff eligible for the last two years, broke that streak with a thrilling 36-35 victory over Benton, a ball club that had previously won two straight against the Bulldogs coming into Friday night's contest at Tabor Field.
In a game that featured more than 700-plus yards of total offense between the two Ohio Division rival schools, it was ultimately decided by penalties and extra points.
For Benton, the Rangers were plagued with 11 flags for 125 yards, killing more drives than head coach Jeremy Clodfelder was comfortable with.
On the flip side, Harrisburg converted on all its extra point attempts, thanks to the boot of Reece Owen, while Benton missed a field goal attempt and a two-point conversion attempt.
Harrisburg head coach Al Way said it was the same old story for his Bulldogs, who showed resiliency when they needed to down the stretch - much like last week at Massac County - but continue to do things that leaves him shaking his head.
"I'm thrilled to death that we won and again, we showed our resilience when we had to make the stop, but we just do so many things to kill ourselves and let the other team (in the ballgame)," Way said. "This is the third time this year, we have fumbled and let the other team run it back for a score. What did we have, three fumbles in the second half? And we lost all three. I can't fault our offense with the exception of the turnovers.
"Defensively, we are just bad," Way said. "I don't know what else to say. We're bad. We will not tackle, we never make a play on third down. It's frustrating as can be, but I don't know what we can do about it. I really don't."
Harrisburg (5-1, 3-0 SIRR Ohio) took a 29-6 lead into the locker room, thanks to a pair of touchdown runs by Jordan Bartok and Tylor Marler.
Bartok scored from one yard out to start the game and following a Harrisburg fumble that led to a scoop and score for Benton's Bryden Picklesimer, the Rangers found themselves down 7-6.
Bartok then scored from five yards out in the second quarter and following a Hamilton Page interception, Marler had a pair of TD runs from 22 and two yards out, giving the Bulldogs the 23-point cushion at halftime.
The padding didn't last very long as Benton (2-4, 1-2 Ohio) turned up the heat on defense and started a second half comeback that was highlighted by three straight touchdown runs from Page, coming from 15, 14 and 1 yard out to get to within two at 29-27 with 4:02 left to play in the third quarter.
"We went back to a defense we were more accustomed to playing, but because of our depth at linebacker, we haven't liked it that much this year," Clodfelder said. "We just felt like we could slant the front and do some different things to keep them guessing and we knew Marler was a guy they wanted to go to. They were hitting us with some slant trap earlier in the game, so we starting slanting away from him so we could hopefully run into their trap play and then we really just started moving the tackles up front and trying to create some confusion for their offensive line and obviously it worked at times."
Harrisburg opened the fourth quarter with a 27-yard TD run from Marler to put a little more distance between the two, making it 26-27, but a mere three minutes later, the Rangers found the end zone when Kruz Hayes caught a 38-yard bomb from Page to make it 36-35 with 8:51 to go.
A minute later, Harrisburg coughed up the ball after Bartok fumbled at midfield, but Harrisburg responded stopping Benton on downs. Again, the Bulldogs fumbled, giving Benton one last chance that was thwarted when Page's pass was intercepted by Jordan Gould, virtually sealing the win for Harrisburg.
It's a loss that Clodfelder knows will sting for a while, but he's hoping it won't have much ripple effect as the Rangers get ready for a Week 7 showdown against Massac County back at home on Senior Night.
"We didn't make a play when we needed to at one point or the other and you have to give 32 (Corbin Crim-Harbison) credit, they have some dudes that can flat fly and we don't have guys that can run quite like them. Our quarterback in the first half busted about three runs that are touchdowns against anybody else in our league and 32 is down there to make a touchdown saving tackle. It just seemed like at every in opportune time we get a stop late in the game to win it or we get on a drive and have a chance to score, it seemed like we would get a really dumb penalty.
That's a concern," Clodfelder added. "My concern would be if our guys were acting extremely undisciplined and not playing the game of football within the legal limits, we want that righted. My other concern is 11 penalties and 125 yards for us and not a single flag thrown on them at our house. I was a high school kid once at 16, 17 and 18 years old and if there is that much extra curricular pushing and shoving going on, it's probably not one sided."
In the end, Way said the kicking game was the overall bright spot in what was a hair-pulling, knuckle-biting ballgame.
"We ran the ball up and down the field, it's just turnovers and defense. Our kicking game was great tonight. Reece had a heck of a game and we have talked to our kids all year about how important extra points are and you saw that tonight. The kicking game ended up winning the game for us and we made every extra point."
Statistically, Harrisburg was led by 162 yards on the ground from Marler on 18 carries and three touchdowns. Bartok had 42 yards on 12 carries and two scores.
The Bulldogs had all their yards come on the ground as Kane Carrigan (who left after the first play with a hamstring injury), Aaron Stephens, Noah Vallette and Crim-Harbison accounted for 315 yards on 42 carries.
Benton was led by Page's 208 yards on 25 carries and the sophomore quarterback threw for 124 on 4-of-14 passing with two interception and racked up 389 yards of total offense.
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.
Harrisburg 22 7 7 0 - 36
Benton 6 8 13 8 - 35
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
HBG - Bartok 1 run (Owen kick), 6:35
BEN - Picklesimer 52 fumble return (kick failed), 4:18
Second Quarter
HBG - Bartok 5 run (Owen kick), 11:54
HBG - Marler 22 run (Bartok run), 11:07
HBG - Marler 2 run (Owen kick), 4:54
BEN - Page 19 run (Richardson pass from Page), 2:40
Third Quarter
BEN - Page 14 run (pass failed), 9:29
BEN - Page 1 run (McMahon kick), 4:02
Fourth Quarter
HBG - Marler 27 run (Owen kick), 11:52
BEN - Hayes 48 pass from Page (Davis pass from Page), 8:51
Team Statistics
HBG BEN
First Downs 18 11
Rushes-Yards 48-315 44-260
Passing 0-2-1 4-11-2
Passing Yards 0 129
Total Yards 315 389
Individual Statistics
RUSHING - HBG: Marler 18-162, Crim-Harbison 1-53, Carrigan 1-48, Bartok 12-42, Stephens 9-36, Vallette 3-4. Team 4-(-30). BEN: Page 25-208, Kelly 9-45, Torres 8-13, Team 2-(-6).
PASSING - HBG: Vallette 0-2-1 0. Page 4-11-2 129
RECEIVING: BEN: Torres 2-71, Hayes 1-48, Richardson 1-10