Fitch wants revenge after 38-0 loss in ’15

By Brian Dzenis

bdzenis@vindy.com

Warren Harding head coach Steve Arnold doesn’t see a difference in going from non-conference to All-American Conference play.

His 3-0 Raiders face a schedule that history and their current track record says is in his team’s favor as they face their first AAC opponent this year, Austintown Fitch (2-1), tonight. In 2015, Harding outscored ACC opponents 172-38 across five games.

“We haven’t talked about it one time and we won’t, because if we take care of ourselves, all that will play out,” Arnold said. “We didn’t win it last year, Boardman did, I don’t even know what our record is in the AAC.”

Arnold is referencing the Raiders’ 18-14 loss to Boardman, their only AAC loss to date.

Managing success and hype is key to Harding’s season. Failing to do so cost the team a conference title in 2015.

“You have to learn how to control success and contain and deal with it, because that’s a problem with a lot of teams, they’ll have some success and then they fall off,” Harding linebacker Thad McCollough said. “I think that was one of our issues last year with how we started off undefeated and then we hit a tough road because we didn’t know how to handle success.”

A very encouraging step in that development was the Raiders’ 41-28 win against Massillon Washington last week. The Raiders fell behind 14-0, then 21-7 before rallying. Arnold said his staff remained calm and that carried over to his players. Harding learned to take a punch and swing back.

“This year at Massillon, we went down and started to yell at each other and blamed each other,” McCollough said. “We learned to come together and once we did come together, there’s nothing like it.”

Harding rallied thanks to an otherworldly performance from quarterback Lynn Bowden, who rushed for 283 yards and six touchdowns on 21 carries.

“He is a tremendously talented athlete and I don’t know if there is a way to contain that young man. He’s a phenom,” Fitch coach Phil Annarella said. “We’ll do our best, but everyone else has done their best and haven’t been successful.”

Annarella said too many years have passed for him to have any extra feelings toward Harding. Annarella coached the Raiders to a state title in 1990, but was replaced after the 1995 season. Any desire for revenge comes from his players, who took a 38-0 loss at Mollenkopf Stadium last season. The Falcons won at Louisville 26-0 last week, but they have been waiting for tonight.

“It’s up there, especially after last year’s loss. We’re looking for a little bit of revenge,” Fitch linebacker Zack Krohn said. “We’re a little more experienced and we’re a lot more confident, those two things alone are going to help us Friday night.”

The onus is on the Falcons to stop Bowden and the rest Harding’s playmakers. They haven’t balked at the challenge.

“There’s nothing written in stone that he’s getting a handful of touchdowns on us,” Fitch defensive end Bryce Warmouth said. “We’re going to try our best, he’s going to try his best and that’s how its going to be.”

They also haven’t put a lot of stock in Harding’s size advantage in the trenches.

“Going into each game this season, every team has been bigger than us,” Falcons linebacker Larry Harrington said. “In my opinion, it’s not a factor, but we have been preparing for it.”

From Harding’s standpoint, the size factor doesn’t make Fitch an easier opponent, it’s a different challenge.

“It’s vastly two different teams from last week with Massillon and this week with Fitch,” Arnold said. “Massillon had a huge offensive line that overpowered us in the first half. Fitch is smaller, but they block you from different angles and try to gash you with counters.”

When told about his team’s AAC run of success, Arnold was dismissive.

“That’s good, but we haven’t accomplished anything,” he said. “I told our players we haven’t accomplished anything. I’ll let them know when we can celebrate.”