Lake County Sentinel
Red Raiders dominate Mustangs 35-14
BY STONE LEXINGTON
SENIOR WRITER
(Painesville, Ohio) — On homecoming night at Jack Britt Stadium, home of the Harvey Red Raiders, head coach Mick Mohner’s Raiders played like kings against the Grand Valley Mustangs.
Not only did Grand Valley enter Friday night’s game with an 0-4 record, it immediately seemed like it could be a long night for the Mustangs when they fumbled on the first two plays of the opening possession. In the end, Harvey dominated the Mustangs en route to a 35-14 victory.
“We thought we just needed to get the bad taste out of our mouth (from the loss at Cardinal last week),” Mohner said. “We were able to strike early and go up early in the first quarter. From there…we were able to find a way to get a W tonight and it feels good.”
On the first offensive play of the game, the snap got past Grand Valley quarterback Nathan Boiarski, who recovered the ball for an eight-yard loss. On the next play, Boiarski fumbled on a quarterback keeper that was recovered by Harvey at the Mustangs 32-yard line. Six plays later, Harvey was in the end zone courtesy of a Blaise Collins five-yard touchdown run, and the score was 7-0 minutes into the game.
After a Grand Valley three-and-out on the ensuing possession, Harvey sophomore quarterback Cavon Wise stepped in for starting senior quarterback Rick Coleman Jr. On the first play of the drive, Wise slipped a screen pass to Coleman, who lined up at receiver, and Coleman did the rest, taking the pass 71 yards down the sideline for the Red Raiders’ second touchdown with 7:04 still to play in the first quarter.
Grand Valley went three-and-out again on their third drive of the game and were forced to punt from their own territory. Harvey, however, blocked the punt and recovered the ball at the Mustangs 18-yard line. It was another one-play drive from there for the Red Raiders, as sophomore receiver Davon Badley took an end-around 18 yards for Harvey’s third touchdown. The score was 21-0 with more than five minutes remaining in the first quarter.
The Mustangs scored their first touchdown of the game in the opening minutes of the second quarter on a four-yard Hunter Perry touchdown run, but missed the extra point. Harvey answered the score with another touchdown, as Coleman took a two-yard quarterback keeper into the end zone with 4:09 to play until halftime. The Red Raiders led 28-6 at the half and never looked back.
With the win, Harvey moved back to .500 (3-3), but their record could easily be 5-1 this season with two of their losses coming by less than a touchdown. Meanwhile, Grand Valley fell to 0-5 this season, playing only one game at home thus far. An added punch to the gut for the Mustangs came in the third quarter when Boiarski seemed to suffer a serious leg injury on a carry.
Grand Valley will look to get their first win of the season when they travel to Cardinal next Friday. Meanwhile, the Red Raiders will attempt to move above .500 for the first time this season when they host Chaney (Youngstown) next week.
“Youngstown’s team, they’re going to be a tough one,” Mohner said. “They got some great players. They got a lot of D-1 athletes over there, so it’s an opportunity for us to kind of showcase what our talent level is like. It’s an opportunity for us to be over .500. They’re an in-region opponent, so there’s a lot of playoff points on the line with a lot of playoff implications, so we just have to go out there and have a great week of practice and put our best foot forward to get ready for those guys next week.”
POSTED 09/24/2021 23:08
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Photo by Stone Lexington
