Harding pulls past Rayen in 28-6 win
Sidney Glover paced the second half spurt by the Raiders.
By DOUG CHAPIN
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
WARREN -- Senior quarterback Sidney Glover sparked Warren Harding with two long second-half touchdown runs and set up more-heralded teammate Dan Herron for another touchdown, as the Raiders overcame a great effort by The Rayen School in a 28-6 victory Friday at Mollenkopf Stadium.
Glover, an Indiana recruit, rambled 46 yards for a touchdown on Harding's first play from scrimmage in the third quarter. The first of four James Teagarden extra points put the Raiders (7-2) ahead 7-6 for the first time in the game.
Glover also scored on the first Harding play of the fourth quarter, this time from 85 yards away. In between his two scores, he led an eight-play, 66-yard scoring drive which ended with a 14-yard touchdown run by Herron off a fine option pitch by Glover.
"We've wanted to continue to expand Sidney's role in the offense and get him more involved," Harding coach Thom McDaniels said. "In the first half they were concentrating on the run and giving us the passing game but we weren't connecting. So the next thing to go to is the spread offense.
& quot;We solved some of the problems we had in the first half by going to the shotgun with Sidney and spreading out their defense. This prevented them from being able to stack so many defenders in the box."
Contained Herron
The Tigers (7-2) managed to contain Herron, an Ohio State recruit, holding him to 72 yards on 22 carries. Glover ran six times for 173 yards.
"We game-planned to take away their best feature and I think we did a good job taking Herron out of their offense," Rayen coach Brian Shaner said. "We thought if we made them have to go to a secondary option we would have a chance.
"Our kids were looking forward to playing in this type of atmosphere and this type of challenge. We played very well and very hard tonight. We just had no answer for Sidney Glover. He can make those types of plays and that's why he's going to Indiana."
The Raiders finished off the scoring in the game with a 3-yard run by Herron with 5:49 remaining. Harding had the ball four times in the second half, not counting a take-a-knee possession in the final seconds, and scored four touchdowns.
Tigers open quickly
Things started very well for Rayen as the Tigers kicked off and recovered a bouncing, angled kickoff which took a fortuitous high bounce for the Tigers.
Shaner said it was not a planned onside kick, just a strategy to limit the Harding return game.
Be that as it may, the Tigers took over at the Raider 35 and scored seven plays later on a slant pass from Salvador Battles to Tomaz Hilton.
The Rayen offense spent the rest of the game battling poor field position and its own mistakes. Rayen had nine more possessions, none of which started further downfield than the Tiger 36. Five of those possessions started inside the 20.
Moved ball well
The Tigers were able to move the ball, totalling 319 yards from scrimmage for the game. Five possessions lasted seven plays or more, but it seemed as Rayen neared or crossed midfield, the attack bogged down.
"We made a lot of mistakes," Shaner said. "We preach every day to the kids that we don't know if anyone can beat us, but we know we can beat ourselves. We had a couple of procedure penalties at the wrong times and just shot ourselves in the foot."
Battles had a terrific game, connecting on 12 of 20 pass attempts for 122 yards and rushing for 64 yards on 14 carries. Gary Thornton added 49 yards on 10 carries, Will Hopkins carried seven times for 49 yards and caught five passes for 29 yards, and Hilton finished with four catches for 34 yards.
Matt Straniak was 3-of-10 passing for Harding for 39 yards. Trevis Owens made all three catches.