Harding Raiders come within inches of grabbing the prize

Football is played on a 100-yard-long field, but it remains a game of inches
And so it was Saturday night, when Cincinnati Elder beat Warren Harding 21-19 to win the Division I state championship.
No single play defines a game or a season or a championship. But sometimes there's one moment that cries out for a "what if..."
For us that moment came at the end of Elder's first scoring drive in the first quarter, when Elder's extra-point attempt bounced off the post and crossbar before falling through. An inch or two the other way, and the dynamic of the game changes.
Such are the musings after a big game. Others might think how things may have been in different weather -- rain, not snow; warm, not cold. If a passed dropped had been caught. A block missed, made. With 22 young men on the field through 48 minutes of play, thousands of decisions are made in the course of a game.
And yet, in the end, football is a team effort, not a series of isolated incidents. No one understands that better than the players and coaches who give their all during the first game of the season and the last game.
Battle of greats
Saturday night, two great high school football teams took the field at Fawcett Stadium in Canton. And everyone knew that at the end of the night one would be the state champion, the other would be the runner-up, but that did not mean either would be the greater.
But both teams are better for having been there.
There were tears for the Harding Raiders as they accepted the second-place trophy. And that is a natural enough reaction from young men who had visions of being crowned state champions.
But as the years pass, those young men will come to realize that they did something quite extraordinary on Nov. 30, 2002. The 20,395 fans -- whether they were rooting for Elder or Harding -- knew it Saturday night, but for some of the players it may take a while to sink in.
Quite simply, they never quit. The Raiders scored all 19 of their points in the fourth quarter.
The lessons they learned about teamwork, about perseverance, about winning and about losing will be with them for the rest of their lives. Long after the trophies lose their glitter, the things they learned from Coach Thom McDaniels and from each other will remain, and will serve them well.