Bowden has another

huge game for Raiders

By GARY HOUSTEAU

sports@vindy.com

WARREN

On a special Hall of Fame night in Warren when heroes of old from the Harding Panthers, Western Reserve Raiders and Harding Raiders were honored at halftime, Lynn Bowden added to his credentials for future admittance to the star-studded club.

The senior quarterback accounted for all five touchdowns, four on the ground and one in the air, as the Raiders ran away from a tight ball game after three quarters to beat Ursuline 34-19.

“When you have legends here, you don’t want to lose in front of your legends,” Harding coach Steve Arnold said. “You have Paul Warfield and Ross Browner and some of Warren’s greatest athletes here and they’re sitting in the stands, you don’t want to lose when those guys are here. When is the next time they’re going to see a Harding game. But it’s a great weekend to have these legends come home to play in front of them. So it was very special.”

Trailing 21-7 at the intermission, Ursuline came out and added two third-quarter scores to close the deficit to 21-19 as Spencer Warren and Joe Floyd scored on runs of 2 and 18 yards respectively and the Irish (2-3) trailed by just two points after three periods.

“We played hard. We held their offense [down] which is very potent,” said Ursuline head coach Larry Kempe. “They had 34 points but we gave them great field position. Turnovers kill you. I’m so proud of our kids the way we battled. You’re looking at this game and with five minutes to go we’re a score away.”

After Ursuline cut it to 21-19, the Irish had the momentum and were driving with the ball into Harding territory when Jalen Hooks intercepted a Jared Fabry pass to essentially turn the game back around in favor of the Raiders for good.

Harding (5-0) went on an eight-play 58-yard drive — capped off by an 8-yard touchdown run by Bowden — to increase the lead to 27-19. But it was still a one score game with 10:26 left in the fourth quarter.

Bowden followed that touchdown up later in the quarter with a 7-yard TD run and provide the final margin of victory for Harding.

“Actually when it was 21-19 I said, ‘Guys, stay composed,’ ” Arnold said. “We went through it down in Massillon. ‘Just stay composed and we will make some plays and just don’t turn the ball over and don’t allow them any big plays.’ ”

It was indeed the ensuing big plays by Harding that allowed the Raiders to seal the victory.

“I thought Kayron Adams came in the second half and ran the ball pretty well,” Arnold said. “Jalen Hooks made some great catches plus the huge interception there. It was a team victory. We’re 5-0 for the first time in a long time and that feels good. And we haven’t beat these guys in two years so it feels good to get this victory.”

Bowden turned in a stellar performance in front of the Hall of Fame audience. He launched a 65-yard bomb to Hooks on the very first play of the game to give the Raiders a 7-0 lead with 11:52 on the clock. He completed 6 of 13 passes for 145 yards and on the ground Bowden added four touchdowns of 6, 32, 8 and 7 yards. He finished with 101 yards on 18 carries.

“That’s what he does,” Arnold said. “That’s another day at the office. He does what he does.”

Bowden was more impressed with the victory than his own performance.

“ I was the player I needed to be tonight,” Bowden said. “We got the job done so that’s all that I’m thinking about right now — 5-0. Just having those people here was very special tonight so it was a big game. It was a must-win.”

The big-time atmosphere at Mollenkopf Stadium for the Hall of Fame weekend aside, Arnold was happy just getting the hard-fought win.

“Ursuline’s a good team,” he said. “This was an old-fashioned, kind of a Steel Valley football game. Both teams played extremely hard, tough, physical. It was everything that we expected from Ursuline. They ran the ball, kind of stymied offensively a little bit, but we still scored 34 points. I thought they played a pretty good defensive game.”