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Harrisburg fights back against Milan for 28-26 win

Kevin Oeth, Sports Editor
Posted 9/7/21

Facing a Milan team that had soundly defeated them last year 57-32, the Harrisburg Bulldogs came back and stood firm Friday night with a 28-26 home win over the Wildcats.

Milan started off the …

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Harrisburg fights back against Milan for 28-26 win

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Facing a Milan team that had soundly defeated them last year 57-32, the Harrisburg Bulldogs came back and stood firm Friday night with a 28-26 home win over the Wildcats.

Milan started off the game with an unexpected onside kick. They then rolled to an early 6-0 lead. 

“Milan makes you match their physicality and their toughness. We didn’t do that last year,” said Harrisburg coach Steve Hopkins. “Last year, we stepped back when we got hit in the mouth, we just weren’t capable mentally. I think we were capable physically, just not mentally. Tonight though, the kids knew going in, because of what happened last year. So the kids made a determination that we could run the ball.” 

Down 6-0, in the first quarter, Senior quarterback Tanner Lanes found 6’2” wide receiver Jace Carr for a 42-yard scoring pass to tie the game at six. Harrisburg then threatened to blow the game open with two touchdown runs by Lanes from one and two yards out, respectively. Those scores put the Bulldog in front 22-6 in the second quarter.

Milan deployed an offense that can only be described as “hurry up and wait, then hurry up again.” The offense would go into its huddle, call the play, then stand and look at the play clock. Once the clock wound down to 10-seconds, sometimes less, head coach John Dabney would signal and the team would sprint to the line of scrimmage, get set, and run the play. 

This strategy worked and led to a pair of Milan touchdowns before the end of the quarter to send the teams into halftime with Harrisburg leading by only two points.

In the third quarter, Milan flexed its special team muscles by blocking a punt and returning it 31 yards for a touchdown to grab a 26-22 lead.

Trailing by four, Harrisburg called a timeout. “The most exciting thing for me tonight, was when we called that timeout,” said Hopkins. “I was ready to call something different, the coaches were suggesting something different and the kids all said, ‘no, coach, we’re running the quarterback sneak, that’s what we’re running.’ The kids all said it, the quarterback said it. That’s when you know that they really believe, and when you have a program that’s not had a lot of success getting kids to believe, that’s the first big step.” And believe they did. Lanes took the ball on the sneak and converted for a 24-yard touchdown run to give Harrisburg the lead for good.

The end of the game, however, was not without its own drama. Just when it seemed Milan might turn things around, the Wildcat quarterback lofted a pass downfield in the vicinity of Jace Carr who jumped above the receiver to make an interception to seal the deal for the Bulldogs with a final score of 28-26.

Sophomore running back Hayven Samuels was a workhorse for the Bulldogs when they needed it, carrying the ball 16 times for 41 yards. “He’s only 142  pounds, and I’m probably giving him some credit for carrying around some coins in his pocket,” said Hopkins. “But he is an extremely tough runner. He fumbled tonight, but he owned it, none of our kids griped at him. They know we’re all going to make mistakes, but he certainly made up for it with other big plays.”

Samuels handed all the credit to his teammates. “I need to give it to the linemen and the quarterback and receivers,” he said. “I couldn’t do it without them and they all came on real big tonight. We just came together and finished strong.”

With a running game that featured Samuels’ 41 yards to go along with Lanes’ 62 yards and three touchdowns, Milan was had to face the multiple threat of Harrisburg’s running and passing game. “It becomes tougher to cover us when both Jace (Carr) and (junior) Anthony (Alicea) are playing really well, and they were tonight,” Hopkins said. “Then (junior) Austin Darwent made some huge plays, so see, we feel like we have more weapons than we’ve had in the past and now our offensive line is buying into the thought that if we can just protect for three-and-a-half seconds, we’ll find an open man.”

Lanes found the open man 12 times on 20 attempts for 210 yards and a touchdown 

Senior Gavin Curtis added five yards on two rushing attempts. 

Carr led the team in receiving with six catches for 77 yards and a touchdown. Darwent hauled in four passes for 65 yards. Alicea made one catch for 47 yards and senior Tanner Fike had one reception for 21 yards.

Defensively, Carr recorded two interceptions, including the one that sealed the game for Harrisburg.

Three players, Darwent, Samuels, and senior Brayton Stephenson contributed to the defense by recording three tackles apiece. Darwent also assisted on seven tackles, Stephenson six, and Samuels three.

Carr and sophomore Hunter Cole each had two tackles while Alicea, Fike, Curtis, juniors Braden Wyatt, and Logan Fritts contributed one apiece.

Friday night at 7 p.m. The Bulldogs will play host to Salisbury. The Wildcats (1-1) are coming off a win at Paris after losing to No. 7 Westran 45-12 in their season opener at home.

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