5A No. 6 Harrison pulls away from Logansport in 2nd half

Oct. 8—The Logansport football team was able to play right with Class 5A No. 6 Harrison for most of the night Friday night.

But three key Berry turnovers helped tilt the game in the Raiders' favor.

Harrison capitalized on Logansport's mistakes in a 28-13 win at Logansport Memorial Hospital Stadium.

The win all but secures the Raiders (7-1, 6-0) at least a share of the NCC title as they host winless Richmond next week. The Berries (6-2, 4-2) travel to Anderson for a chance at third or fourth place.

The Berries were still in the hunt for a share of the NCC title but they needed to win Friday night. Similar to the Kokomo game in Week 3, they went into halftime tied in a low scoring game. But also similar, the opponent was able to pull away in the second half as perhaps fatigue took a toll.

But the Berries had their chances in both contests. They lost all three of their turnovers on Friday night when they had a good drive going.

Their first turnover happened on an early drive in which they caught a break after the Raiders lost a fumble during a good drive. The Berries drove down the Harrison 17-yard line when Izak Mock's second-down pass was tipped and intercepted in the end zone. Harrison drove down the field and Ben Henderson's 18-yard touchdown run gave the Raiders a 7-0 lead with 10:36 left in the second quarter.

The Berries caught a break when the Raiders caught an onside kick attempt that never hit the ground that was a 15-yard penalty and Logansport started its ensuing drive in Harrison territory at the 40-yard line. The Berries converted a fourth-and-2 with a Mock 3-yard run. He then found Chris Rene for a 29-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 7-all with 7:38 left in the half.

The Berries' defense came up with a big stop when they tackled a Harrison ball carrier off of a shovel pass two yards short of a first down on fourth-and-4 from the 11 with 1:50 left in the half. The score remained 7-7 at halftime.

The Raiders drove down the field on the opening possession of the second half but the Logansport defense stiffened in the red zone and forced a 27-yard field goal attempt by Trey DeJoie. The kick was good to give Harrison a 10-7 lead with 8:09 left in the third quarter.

The Berries answered with a good drive but Shamari Gittings lost a fumble and the Raiders recovered at their 23-yard line.

Harrison put another good drive together but Logan forced another short field goal. DeJoie's 25-yard attempt was good and Harrison took a 13-7 lead with 33 seconds left in the third.

The Berries went three-and-out on their next possession and punted the ball back to the Raiders. By now the Harrison offense was rolling. It didn't help that Logansport leading tackler Grayson Long left the game for good with an injury after making a tackle. Henderson scored from 1 yard out to cap a 59-yard drive and after back-to-back penalties Henderson scored on the 2-point conversion run to make it 21-7 with 7:42 left.

The Berries put another good drive together but Gittings lost another fumble to give the Raiders the ball back at their 36. Chris Ferguson broke off a 52-yard TD run to make it a 28-7 game with 6:03 left.

The Berries put a good final drive together, capped by a 1-yard TD run by Luis Ortiz. The PAT was blocked to make it a 28-13 game with 31 seconds remaining.

Mock was 7 of 10 passing for 118 yards with one touchdown and one interception for the Berries. Gittings had three catches for 44 yards. Long had two catches for 38 yards.

The Berries rushed for 156 yards on 37 attempts. Gittings had 65 yards on nine carries. Ortiz had 61 yards on 14 attempts. Rene had 36 yards on seven totes.

Henderson was 7 of 7 passing for 38 yards for the Raiders. He ran the ball 16 times for 126 yards. Ferguson had 87 yards on seven carries. Carter Knoy had 86 yards on 10 attempts. Ethan Popp added 58 yards on four tries.

The Raiders rushed for 385 yards on 39 attempts. They outgained the Berries 423-274 in total yardage and had 17 first downs to the Berries' 14.

But perhaps the stat of the game for the Berries was a 3-1 deficit in the turnover category as they needed to play a cleaner game in order to have a chance at pulling off an upset.

"The keys to this game were to play turnover and penalty free and we did penalty-wise but not so much turnovers," Logansport coach Mike Johnson said. "In big ballgames like that from here on out really turnovers are going to be huge.

"But we battled a pretty good football team there really. Unlike the Kokomo game we were able to move the ball and attack them on offense. On defense we got two big defensive stops and forced field goals. They're an explosive team. They've got lots of weapons. That quarterback is very good. They're a highly ranked 5A football team so we battled with them. Disappointing we didn't win or play better but nothing to hang our heads about and I think if we continue to work hard we'll make some noise in the tournament."

The Berries got one all-state player back from an injury as Jeremiah Miller played the entire game on defense at safety. But they lost another when Long left in the fourth quarter. Johnson said that Long suffered another stinger like he did in the McCutcheon game three weeks earlier.

"Hopefully he'll be all right. I'm sure he will be," Johnson said. "Miah was able to come back and play and he was around on defense. It was good to get him back.

"We were right where we wanted to be at halftime."

It was the closest the Berries have played the Raiders since they joined the NCC in 2014.

"Our guys knew we were able to play with them," Johnson said. "We have not had a real good history with them. They have shellacked us. This was by far the closest. Talking with coach Peebles before he thinks this is his best team yet. It looked like it to me on film. Congratulations to them. They won the conference or at least a share of it unless something unexpected happens next week."

In other area games, Hamilton Heights topped Cass 27-20, Pioneer lost to Culver 28-8 and Winamac beat Caston 33-12.

Read more about those games and Jeremiah Miller's recent return to the field for the Berries in Tuesday's Pharos-Tribune.