Special-teams miscues

help Wildcats edge Raiders

By MARTY GITLIN

sports@vindy.com

SOLON

Football is no snap. But snapping the football should be — and it was anything but a snap Friday night for Warren Harding.

The result was a heartbreaking 23-21 loss to Mayfield in a Division II regional semifinal. Several snaps that went awry pretty much prevented the Raiders from advancing.

The last one proved particularly devastating. A high snap with Harding leading 21-20 and just over one minute remaining resulted in a 10-yard punt, allowing the Wildcats to start their possession on the Raiders 18-yard line. After two runs netted nine yards, Mayfield placekicker Ryan McCalligan booted the game-winning field goal.

Ironically, it proved to be redemption for center Angelo DelBalso, whose — you guessed it — bad snap minutes earlier prevented the Wildcats from attempting an initial field goal that would have put his team ahead.

“I wanted to give our kids another chance,” said relieved and jubilant Mayfield coach Larry Pinto. “I put my arm around Angelo and said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ I’m glad he got another opportunity and I’m glad Ryan did as well.”

The McCalligan boot that all but cemented the win was tipped at the line and barely fluttered over the crossbar and inside the left post. It all but ended a night of frustration for Harding coach Steve Arnold, whose team had a chance to ice it after the blown field goal attempt, but went three-and-out. A shoulder injury to brilliant Raiders quarterback Lynn Bowden had been a concern, but he was in the game and did run on third down.

“It hurts because we needed just one first down and we couldn’t get it,” Arnold said. “We put the ball in our two best offensive players’ hands [running back Keemari Murry and Bowden]. ... This ain’t easy, man. We let it slip away. It was a game we had when they missed that field goal.”

As for the bad snaps, which plagued his team throughout, Arnold said he had “no explanation” considering it was the first time the Raiders experienced such problems all year.

They certainly experienced no problems moving the ball in the second half, which the evenly matched combatants began deadlocked at 7-7. Bowden (20 carries, 229 yards) broke the tie on his 22nd touchdown of the season when he faked a handoff to Murry and bolted up the middle for a 10-yard score.

The Wildcats answered immediately on a 6-yard touchdown run by Michael Canganelli, who racked up 81 of his 126 rushing yards after intermission.

Harding bolted ahead again at 21-14 when Bowden, who had just run for 26 yards, burst over a hole up the middle, cut left and ran for a 36-yard touchdown. But two minutes into the fourth quarter, Mayfield quarterback Mario Monastero found versatile senior Jared Dostal wide open in the left corner of the end zone on fourth-and-goal for what would have been a game-tying touchdown had McCalligan not missed the extra point.

That Mayfield scored on fourth down proved particularly frustrating to Arnold.

“It was a breakdown in the secondary,” he said. “They dragged their tight end over and we had a miscommunication.”

It likely wouldn’t have mattered in the end if the bad snap hadn’t resulted in a punt that put the Wildcats back in field goal position. But it also might not have mattered had a series of bad snaps in the first half not hurt Harding. The most critical was one that flew over the punter’s head late in the first quarter and gave Mayfield possession at the Raiders’ 13. Monastero, who took off after spotting no open receivers, cashed in on a 4-yard touchdown run that made it 7-0.

An interception by Harding defensive back Tavon Hooks proved to be an early turning point. It led to a 19-yard touchdown run by Isaiah Wells that forged a 7-7 tie at halftime.

In the end, though, it was Mayfield doing all the celebrating.

“We came up with some big stops and came through when we had to,” Pinto said.

The same could be said about Harding at times Friday night. But though the game was no snap for either team, it was the last bad snap of the night that prevented the Raiders from keeping their championship dreams alive.