Four plays and one Matt Bonfield touchdown run later, the Wildcats led 7-0 in just under two minutes of play.
Bonfield, Harrison’s primary rushing threat in the contest, carried the ball 17 times for 85 yards and a pair of scores.
“I don’t think we were ready to play the game,” Ross coach Brian Butts said. “Fumbling the opening snap set the tone for mistakes. You just can’t give a team with that experience and that size and strength that many opportunities to succeed.”
The Wildcats, winners of four straight games against the Rams, again found success through the air as junior quarterback Frankie Young completed 12 of 18 passes for 294 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
“I think that’s our strength right now,” Harrison coach Kent McCullough said of his potent passing attack. “It’s hard for teams to match up with our speed and skill, and I think we’re going to become an even more dangerous offense.”
Senior receivers Nick Vanderpohl and Mitchell Crawford were Young’s preferred targets. Vanderpohl finished with six catches for 103 yards, and Crawford led all receivers with 170 yards on five grabs. Each scored a touchdown.
Despite the success of the Wildcats’ passing efforts, Butts felt the Rams were well prepared defensively, but failed to make the necessary in-game adjustments.
“We had some really good reads on (Young’s) tendencies,” he said. “But he did a great job of going to his second read in the play and was able to find the open guy after we read his first tendency.”
Eight of Young’s 12 completions were for 20 yards or more, including a 69-yard catch-and-run by Crawford to make it a 35-0 game midway through the third quarter.
Ross, playing without the injured Logan Fuller behind center, were held to 179 total yards.
Arno, stepping back into the role in which he competed during two-a-day practices, completed 15 of 25 passes for 154 yards and was intercepted once to go along with 39 rushing yards. He connected with sophomore Dillon Zimmerman for a 55-yard score late in the fourth quarter to avoid the shutout.
Zimmerman led the Rams with 91 receiving yards.
“Arno stepped up magnificently last week,” Butts said. “They (Harrison) made adjustments to him in the second half, and without many reps since two-a-days, he (Arno) had a hard time adjusting to that and so did our line.”
With the Rams traveling to Mount Healthy next Friday, Butts is ready to put this game behind him and his team.
“We don’t need to watch the tape to find what we did wrong,” he said. “We know what we did wrong tonight.
“What we need to do with this film is find what we did well and do those things even better next week. We need to pop the kids up and get them excited to play football at Mount Healthy next week.”
The Wildcats will be at home against Edgewood next Friday.
Harrison 14-7-21-0—42
Ross 0-0-0-7—7
H: Matt Bonfield 1 run (Kyle Farfsing kick)
H: Mitchell Crawford 22 pass from Frankie Young (Farfsing kick)
H: Nick Vanderpohl 7 pass from Young (Farfsing kick)
H: Gerald Smith 6 run (Farfsing kick)
H: Crawford 60 pass from Young (Farfsing kick)
H: Bonfield 3 run (Farfsing kick)
R: Dillon Zimmerman 55 pass from Zach Arno (Blake Niefield kick)
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