Harding strong against Chaney

By Pete Mollica

WARREN — Warren Harding High’s football team came out of last week’s deadlock against East Cleveland Shaw with a bad taste in their mouths.

Unfortunately for Chaney, the Raiders (1-0-1) took out their frustrations on the Cowboys Friday night with a 58-0 pounding at Mollenkopf Stadium.

“We want to be a team that is undefeated and we still are,” said Harding coach D.J. Dota. “We left last week with a bad taste in our mouths and the kids came out tonight and played with great intensity.”

Intensity might be not even the right word for the Raiders’ performance.

They scored the first nine times they had the football and never punted.

On defense they limited the Cowboys (0-2) to just 53 total yards and one first down, which didn’t come until the final minutes of the contest.

“We’ve got eight returning starters on defense and we felt that was our strength this season, although we were disappointed in our effort last week and I let them know about it this week,” Dota said.

“We definitely made improvements in the X and O’s of the game and I’m proud of the way they came out ready to play tonight,” he added.

Just about everybody got into the scoring act on offense for the Raiders.

Senior quarterback Jordan Miller opened the game with a pair of touchdown passes to senior wide receiver Andrew Zitnik of 22 and 24 yards.

When Jordan went down with an injury early in the second quarter junior Mikhail Seawood stepped in and threw one touchdown pass to Edward Killingsworth of 22 yards and also ran for two more on runs of 3 and 19 yards.

Junior running back Demond Hymes, who led the Raiders’ rushing attack with 89 yards on 10 carries, also rushed for two touchdowns on runs of 18 and 13 yards.

When Dota went to the bench in the second half there was little difference in the results as senior quarterback Chris Zadroski tossed a 26-yard touchdown pass to Deen Franklin and sophomore Justin Magazine closed out the scoring on a 19-yard run early in the final quarter.

The Cowboys didn’t help themselves much, either, losing two fumbles and had one interception. They also had a blocked punt which led to another Raiders’ score.

Harding wasn’t stopped on a drive until their final one midway through the final quarter.

Chaney had very few offensive highlights.

Their longest rush from scrimmage was 7 yards through three quarters before senior running back Eddie Crook broke loose on a 32 yard run in the final minutes of the game, which also gave the Cowboys their first and only first down.

“We just came out and played with a lot of intensity tonight,” said senior linebacker Scott Manusakis. “You never underestimate an opponent and we certainly didn’t tonight. We had some things to prove out there tonight and we played them just as if they were a [Cleveland] St. Ignatius.”

mollica@vindy.com