Prep Football: Second half stumbles does in Dogs
The year was 2004. The Patriots won the Super Bowl, Boston won the World Series. American Idol was all the rage on T.V., Shrek 2 stole the spotlight in the movie theatre and Facebook was born.
It was also the last time West Frankfort beat Harrisburg on the football field.
In Saturday's matinee, Harrisburg surrendered a 14-point second half lead to lose 34-33 on the road and drop to 1-3 on the season.
The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that is the Bulldogs football team had multiple opportunities to win, but the same number of opportunities to stop a West Frankfort ball club that is now 3-1 on the year and winners of three straight.
"It's the same old thing, either you make plays or you don't," Harrisburg head coach Al Way said. "We had a boot leg wide open in the first half and the receiver just stopped running, that would have been a touchdown. Our defensive line just got destroyed the entire day, we just simply couldn't stop them. If we could play defense, we win. If you score 33 points, you should win the game.
"We dropped a fly pattern late in the game that would have won the game. We dropped the two-point conversion that would have put us ahead. Isaiah (Saulsberry) had a heck of a game. He made one bad decision the entire game, other than that he played great. It's probably the best he's played all year," Way continued. "We just can't make plays when we have too and defensively, we're just bad. I don't know what else to do, we've tried all kinds of different people on the defensive line and they just get blown off the ball. Of course, we're playing without two All-Conference linebackers (Blake Drue, out for season with ACL. Jordan Bartok, missed game due to hip pointers) and then we lost Cole Ferrell, one of our defensive ends. It just keeps getting worse."
Brandon Beery, the 6-foot-1, 195-pound senior quarterback was like a surgeon Saturday, carving up the Harrisburg defensive line and knifing his way for 323 yards on 37 carries.
But the big damage was done by Logan Tomanovich, who had three second half touchdowns, including the 3-yard run at 8:54 in the fourth to give West Frankfort the 34-27 lead, one they would not relinquish.
Harrisburg got to within one, 34-33 after Matt Upchurch punched his second score of the game, this one coming from 10 yards out with 7:09 to play.
Poor field conditions at West Frankfort after Friday night's game made certain area's sloppy, swampy and marshy.
Harrisburg could have elected to kick the field goal and tie the game, but because of the dampness where Dalton Drone would have had to kick from, Way and company elected to go for two. The result was a drop pass off the shoulder pads of Axavier Doss in the end zone.
"That had a lot to do with it," Way admitted because of poor field conditions. "I talked to Drone and he told me he could have kicked it if it was on the other end, but the end we were on, it was just too muddy. We thought we had something we work on all the time, which is a simple X pass. Isaiah made a great pass, it was there."
Harrisburg got on the board and looked to set the tone after Doss ripped off a 77-yard run in the first quarter, however, Drone's kick was no good as the Bulldogs took a 6-0 lead.
West Frankfort grabbed a one-point lead after Beery had a 12-yard run, followed by a Sam Cooksey kick at the 6:46 mark to put the Redbirds up 7-6.
That was the last lead West Frankfort would enjoy until the fourth quarter.
Ryan Ragsdale added an 8-yard TD run for Harrisburg and Tomanovich tied the game at 14-all with his 1-yard plunge in the end zone with 3:56 to play before half.
Hunter Smith ripped off a 60-yard run on a quarterback option play with 2:01 to play to put Harrisburg up 21-14 and the Bulldogs held their biggest lead of the game when Upchurch found paydirt from 51 yards out with 10:13 to play in the third as Harrisburg led 27-14.
Tomanovich then had runs of 50, two and three yards out, giving West Frankfort the 34-27 advantage.
It was a loss that Way knows was preventable and now with just one win in the first three games, the Bulldogs are looking down the barrel of missing out on the postseason.
It's a thought that Way said he nor the team can concern themselves with right now as they have five games remaining on their schedule and need four wins and will have to do against competition that is a combined 9-11 to date.
"We have to try to win the games we can win," Way said. "We've shot ourselves in the foot and lost two games we had no business losing. We should have beat Boonville and West Frankfort and be 3-1. Instead we're 1-3, we need to win the next two weeks and try to get healthy and see what happens after that."
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register and Eldorado Daily Journal. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.
West Frankfort 07 07 13 07 - 34
Harrisburg 14 07 06 06 - 33
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
HBG - Doss 77 yard run (kick failed), 8:38
WF - Beery 12 yard run (Cooksey kick), 6:46
HBG - Ragsdale 8 run (Upchurch conversion), 1:19
Second Quarter
WF - Tomanovich 1 run (Cooksey kick), 3:56
HBG - Smith 60 run (Drone kick), 2:01
HBG - Upchurch 51 run (kick failed), 10:13
WF - Tomanovich 50 run (Cooksey kick), 8:58
WF - Tomanovich 2 run (kick failed), 1:07
Fourth Quarter
WF - Tomanovich 3 run (Cooksey kick), 8:54
HBG - Upchurch 10 run (conversion failed), 7:09
Team Stats
HBG WF
First Downs 9 17
Total Yards 405 457
Rushes-Yards 33-306 55-429
Comp-Att-Int 8-11-1 3-8-0
Penalties-Yards 0-0 4-30
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 2-2
Individual Statistics
Rushing: HBG - Doss 7-97, Upchurch 14-116, Ragsdale 6-21, Saulsbery 2-8, Smith 5-66. WF - Beery 37-323, Tomanovich 16-91, Matheny 2-15.
Passing: HBG - Saulsberry 8-11-109. WF - Beery 3-8-0 28.
Receiving: HBG - Doss 2-10, Smith 3-50, Hefner 2-42, Gould 1-7. WF - Matheny 2-11, Glass 1-17.