Staff photo / Michael R. Semple Warren G. Harding’s Matt Richardson (10) stiff-arms Cardinal Mooney’s Kingston Powell while carrying the ball during the Raiders’ loss to the Cardinals on Thursday at Mollenkopf Stadium in Warren.

WARREN — It wasn’t pretty, but Cardinal Mooney got the job done on Thursday night.

The Cardinals scored early and let their defense control the game the rest of the night, holding on for a 7-3 victory over Warren G. Harding at Mollenkopf Stadium in Warren.

“We had to give it everything we got, play the next play and just be resilient because we know how talented these guys are, how well-coached they are and how fundamentally sound they are,” Mooney head coach Frank Colaprete said. “We just know we had to play within ourselves, not turn the ball over and not give up a big play.”

Mooney struck first on its opening offensive drive after forcing the Raiders to punt on their first possession.

After a pass interference penalty moved the Cardinals into plus territory, Brady Desmond took the handoff on a counter and sprinted 34 yards for the touchdown.

“That was huge,” Colaprete said. “Not only was it the early points, but that set the tone and gave our guys confidence throughout the game.”

From there, things started to get ugly.

First, Mooney recovered a Harding fumble. But the Raiders’ defense rose to the occasion and forced a turnover on downs to get the ball back.

Harding went three-and-out, but the Cardinals blocked the punt. Despite another opportunity with favorable field position, Mooney wasn’t able to add to its lead.

The missed opportunities in the first half loomed for Mooney, and the Raiders were able to chip into the Cardinals’ lead before halftime.

Towards the end of the first half, Harding started finding some rhythm offensively.

Set up by a 31-yard carry from Amiere Cobb and a handful of carries by Satavian Hill, the Raiders moved the ball all the way inside the Mooney 5-yard line, yet still couldn’t quite get into the end zone.

In the final seconds of the half, kicker Jaron Edmonds booted a 20-yard field goal to put Harding on the board trailing 7-3 heading into the intermission.

“Bottom line, and by no means am I making anybody feel sorry for us, but we’re playing with a quarterback that hasn’t played quarterback since ninth grade and we’re playing with a freshman and sophomore running back,” Harding head coach Matt Richardson said. “We played our asses off. We played to try to play more field position to get ourselves in position to try to get a score, but we couldn’t. We didn’t do that.”

Despite what started as a promising drive to start the second half, Mooney was never able to move the ball much in the second half against the Raiders’ defense. The Cardinals finished with 104 total yards and were 1-for-10 on third down.

“The defense played phenomenal,” Richardson said, “just like they have all year.”

Harding relied mostly on its run game in the second half, finishing with 178 rushing yards compared to just one passing yard, but still struggled to finish drives.

The Raiders got the ball in Mooney territory twice in the final minutes, and couldn’t put points on the board.

On the first opportunity, Harding drove all the way to the Cardinals’ 12-yard line and turned the ball over on downs with 3:18 left.

“There wasn’t a throw that we were confident in at all,” Richardson said. “So we just tried to keep putting the ball in our best players’ hands.”

With Mooney pinned deep in the shadow of its own end zone, the Cardinals were forced to punt and the Raiders got one more shot.

“They have an incredible kicker and incredible kick returners, so I was relying on our defense,” Colaprete said. “I don’t know how confident I was, but I think weighing all the options in my head, that was the one that gave us the best chance.”

Harding started the drive at the Cardinals’ 27-yard line with 2:06 left. On the second play, Mooney’s Mike McGlone forced a Raiders fumble, their third turnover of the night, and Tonnie Baddie recovered to seal the victory for the Cardinals.

“You want playmakers on your team,” Colaprete said. “For someone to come up in a moment like that, to force a fumble, and another guy to come up with the ball when it was moving around like that is extremely important because that ended the game.”