An 'A' to Harding's 'D': Raiders defense strong

Warren Harding had seven sacks in last week's regional final win over Mentor.
By BRIAN RICHESSON
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
WARREN -- With the Warren Harding High football team, there's speed. Lots of it.
"Speed and aggressiveness," senior safety Rob Massucci said. "Nobody on our defense is afraid to hit. We don't care how big you are, we're coming at you."
It's hard to talk Raider football without mentioning that speed, which seems most evident on the defensive side.
"Great speed, great quickness," Harding coach Thom McDaniels said. "It gives us the ability to get to the ball quickly but also the ability to recover from mistakes quickly."
State showdown
Make no mistake this week: Harding (13-0) is in the Division I state semifinals. The Raiders will play Massillon Washington (11-2) on Saturday at the Rubber Bowl in Akron.
For Harding's first trip to the state semifinal since 1990 -- when it won the Div. I title -- you can thank the defense.
"We had eight returning starters, so I knew that was the strength before the season began," McDaniels said.
Just as running back Maurice Clarett commanded much of the opponents' attention last season, senior strong safety Prescott Burgess was supposed to do the same this season defensively.
Burgess, however, suffered a shoulder injury in Week 6 and was sidelined until the playoffs. He has played sparingly in Harding's postseason wins over Cleveland St. Ignatius, Lakewood St. Edward and Mentor.
"He's one of the best players in the state. He misses five games and we [still] did what we did," McDaniels said.
Balanced defense
While Burgess was out, other Raiders stepped forward -- to no surprise to those within the program.
"There's not any one player to key on," McDaniels said. "Our top five or six tacklers are within six or seven tackles of each other. It's a true team defense in every sense of the word."
The defensive front applies heavy pressure to the quarterback, as it did in sacking Mentor's Thom Abbott seven times last week.
"It was very impressive, just short of remarkable," said McDaniels, in describing how his team shut down Mentor's potent no-huddle offense for a 14-7 victory.
Leading the way against the Cardinals were junior ends Anthony Hoke and Andre Boomer, who had three sacks each. Hoke, a first-year starter, leads the Raiders with 19 sacks this season.
"It just happens," said Hoke, when asked to explain his sack total. "First you have to go through your keys [checks at the line], and as soon as I see the quarterback drop back, I just go for him.
"Coaches were telling me all the time that I had potential and I've just got to use it."
Raider representatives
Senior linebackers James Johnson, Dimitrios Makridis and Stefon Alexander have made key plays throughout the season, McDaniels noted.
"One person that gets us going is Stef [Alexander]," Massucci said. "He's crazy on the field. Just always talking. He gets me going, I know that."
The defensive backfield includes senior corner Mike Phillips, who has often shut down the opponent's top receiver.
"We pretty much had the whole defense back," said Massucci of the 2001 team that lost to St. Ignatius in the regional final. "I knew we were going to be as strong or better than last year."
richesson@vindy.com