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Harding falls to SVSM, 27-12

Staff photo / Joel Whetzel Harding's Javonte Jones looks for running room.

WARREN — It was another night of missed chances for Warren G. Harding.

The Raiders managed to force three turnovers against visiting Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary on Friday night at Mollenkopf Stadium, but Harding couldn’t parlay those takeaways into offense in a 27-12 loss to the Fighting Irish.

St. Vincent-St. Mary (4-1) fumbled six times and lost three of them, but outside of a fumble returned for a touchdown, Harding (1-5) didn’t score any points directly off of those takeaways in the loss.

“We couldn’t capitalize on their turnovers, which is disappointing offensively for us,” said Harding head coach Steve Arnold. “We have to put the ball in the end zone. I thought (SVSM was) a very, very physical football team on both sides of the ball. Give them credit for their physicality.”

Harding took an early lead, as SVSM fumbled on its second play from scrimmage and Nysier Coleman returned it 25 yards for a touchdown.

Emmanuel Washington and Chris Provitt each also recovered first-half fumbles for Harding.

It wound up being the Raiders’ only lead of the night, however, despite the fumbles, the Irish eventually got their run game in sync.

Santino Harper gave the Irish their lead with 7:34 left in the first quarter on a 19-yard run, and then extended that advantage to 14-6 with a 20-yard run with 1:39 left before halftime.

He capped off his hat trick in the second half with a 14-yard run with 11:19 left in the game, and finished with 240 yards on 25 carries.

Meanwhile, D’Anthony Kelker provided 117 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries. As a team, SVSM ran for 376 yards on 46 attempts.

That proved to wear down a Harding defense that initially was up for the challenge, but as the game wore on, the Irish were able to break more and more explosive runs off.

“No question (the physicality wore the defense down),” Arnold said. “You can only hold off for so long, and (we held on for) as long as we could. When you put that massive offensive line that continues to knock on you and two very good running backs that they have — it wore on us. You saw it eventually wore on us.”

That also came in part to a Harding offense that spent most of its night punting. The Raiders gained just 164 total yards on 48 plays, and had a handful of drives start with good field position before fizzling on the SVSM side of the field.

Dalys Jett drew the Raiders to within 14-12 in the third quarter on a 5-yard touchdown with 3:08 to go, and finished with a team-high 34 yards rushing. Javonte Jones added 27 yards on six carries, most of which were sweeps.

Harding did have some late success in its short passing game, as five different Raiders had receptions in the loss. Devin Boss, Chaz Coleman and Naujeat Jones each had three catches.

The Raiders nearly struck again in the fourth quarter, but wound up turning the ball over on downs at the SVSM 11 in what proved to be their final possession. From there, the Irish relied on Kelker and Harper to pound the ball and drain the clock.

Harding will look to rebound at Boardman next week.

“You keep going,” Arnold said. “Nobody associated with this football building has a mindset to give up. We’ll come back (Saturday), watch film, and we’ll come back (to practice) Monday, get to work and start prepping for Boardman.”

jwhetzel@tribtoday.com

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