Harding beats Ursuline, claims SVC title

By BOB ROTH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
WARREN -- The Harding High football team scored three first-half touchdowns in Friday's 31-12 victory over Ursuline in a Steel Valley Conference clash at Mollenkopf Stadium.
A pair of superb punts by senior Isaac Chaney and an excellent strip of the football by Richard Davis helped the Raiders (6-0, 2-0) win the SVC title.
Chaney put a 44-yard punt out of bounds at the Irish 6 yard line and a 35-yarder out on the Ursuline 7 to set up a pair of touchdowns.
Davis, a 6-0 192 senior who had four solo hits, belted Irish quarterback Daryll Clark to force a fumble recovered by Andre Boomer at the Ursuline 15.
Davis also scored touchdowns on runs of 14, 5 and 34 yards as he gained 90 yards on eight carries. "Holes and running room was there for me all night because the people up front were doing their job the way they always do," Davis said.
Stoppers
Twice in the second half when Ursuline needed short yardage and went for it on fourth down, Davis along with senior Phil McNeal were in on tackles to stop the Irish.
McNeal had five solo hits which included two sacks of Clark.
After Harding's first two touchdowns, the Irish marched 86 yards in nine plays with Clark picking up 51 yards on three of his completions on the drive.
Terrell Washington scored on a 5-yard run.
Raiders senior quarterback Alex Engram hit Mario Manningham for a 15 yard scoring pass to culminate a six play, 35-yard scoring drive that was set up by a Jonte' Stroud 30-yard punt return.
The last score of the first half was a 36-yard field goal by Joe Spain, who also booted four conversions.
Field position
A huge factor in the game was field position. Harding started from the Ursuline 29, 15 and 35 yard lines for their first three touchdowns.
"I was disappointed with our special teams the last two weeks, so they were under the gun tonight and came up big for us," Harding coach Thom McDaniels said.
"Of couse, the field position we had because of a pair of great punts doesn't mean anything unless you capitalize on them offensively, and we were able to do that tonight," McDaniels said.
Late in the game, Clark completed six of seven passes for 66 yards ending the drive with a 13-yard scoring toss to Walt Lacey.
Clark was 20 of 29 passing for 223 yards, but the Ursuline ground game was held to less than 45 yards thanks to several Raider sacks.
Engram was 9 of 18 passing for 121 yards and Delbert Ferguson, the former Irish running back, ran the football 15 times for 36 yards.