Team

Warren Harding

Record	Div.	Conf.
2/7	Div. I	All-American Conference Gold Tier

By John Rozum

sports@vindy.com

Warren

For 47 minutes and 42 seconds the Warren Harding Raiders never fell behind on the scoreboard against the Bedford Bearcats on Friday night.

But with 18 seconds left on the clock, Bedford QB Deon Carter took the snap, stepped up in the pocket, and then took off for the end zone and scored from 18 yards out to give the Bearcats (3-2) the 12-7 victory.

The Raiders are now 1-4, but Harding’s last three losses are only by an average of 4.3 points.

“The fact of the matter is we’ve been right there every week and we just got to find a way to finish, “ said Warren Harding coach Rick Rios, emphasizing his offense. “That’s been the big thing. We need some guys to step up. We’re looking for the guy on this team that will step and take over in tight situations. We didn’t have that guy we can lean on, and we need to find the guys that will take over in crunch time.”

Throughout the game, the Raiders were able to move the ball well and got some solid productivity on the ground from RB LeShun Daniels, who compiled 107 yards on 20 carries.

QB Jimmy Rumple also had a solid performance in completing 5-of-8 passes, including his first two that went to Orlando Ervin who scored a TD on a 48 yard catch-and-run late in the first quarter.

Thereafter, however, it was a game of many turnovers as Harding ended up muffing a punt in the second quarter that led to Bedford’s first TD, but the Raiders were able to block the extra point and went into halftime still leading 7-6.

In the second half, both starting QBs (Rumple of Warren and Deon Carter of Bedford) each threw two interceptions that kept the possessions constantly changing.

“I think we’re playing well defensively, but we’re still giving up big plays.” said Rios. “We did it last week and we did it this week where we missed a couple of tackles on the perimeter and we gave up the big play.”

And the big play is what did in fact hurt, as Bedford had three plays of 30 or more yards and two runs from Carter of 11 and 18 yards that both went for TDs.

“Offensively we move the ball well, but don’t finish,” Rios said. “Defensively we play pretty well and get a lot of stops, but then we give up big plays and those are things we’ve got to get corrected.”