Football, it has been said since the days of leather helmets, comes down to blocking and tackling.
The Harlan County Black Bears have been in short supply of both during the first half of the 2023 season, a painful truth evident during a 44-20 loss Friday against visiting Lawrence County.
The Bears came up with three big scoring plays, which would have been enough to avoid a pair of heartbreaking losses earlier this season to Middlesboro and Hazard, but it wasn’t enough against a Lawrence offense that rolled up 214 yards on the ground and 239 yards through the air. The HCHS defense made a couple of early stops despite horrible field position and came up with three interceptions, but gave up their share of big plays due in large part to horrid open-field tackling.
“If we back and look at missed tackles and what could have been, we would have been in the game. We were all over guys, then the next you thing you know they are going for a touchdown,” Harlan County coach Amos McCreary said. “I don’t know any other way to correct it other than to go back to work at it. Blocking and tackling are fundamental parts of the game, and you have to do it.”
HCHS was limited to only 29 yards on the ground on 22 carries and picked up only three first downs.
“We’re just not able to move the football on the ground like we’d like to,” McCreary said.
Senior quarterback Talan Pollock completed 15 of 30 passes for 214 yards and three touchdowns. William McDavid and Cody Crum, both seniors, combined for 124 yards on 24 carries, while freshman Cavin Williams added 65 yards on three carries.
The Bears got off to a great start as Ethan Rhymer found an open Luke Kelly down the sideline for what turned into a 90-yard touchdown pass as Kelly was able to beat the Lawrence safety to the end zone. Rhymer threw to Carter Howard for the two-point conversion and an 8-0 lead with 8:13 left in the first quarter.
“Coach (Scotty) Bailey did a good job of drawing up a couple of big plays, but you can’t draw up every one of them for touchdowns,” McCreary said. “We watched a lot of film and saw some things, and we were able to get a couple of them tonight.”
Thanks to an onside kick recovered by Lawrence and HCHS punts covering 14, 6 and 13 yards, the Bulldogs their first four drives in Harlan County territory. Sophomore defensive back Gage Bailey rescued the Bears on the first Lawrence possession as he knocked down a pass in the end zone and made a stop in the backfield on a second-and-four play from the HC 5.
After being stopped on their first two drivers, both deep inside HC territory, the Lawrence offense came alive as Pollock shook off a slow start to find Carlo Chicko for a 44-yard touchdown pass with 4:59 left in the opening quarter, Eli Fletcher’s two-point conversion run tied the game.
Pollock found Jake Derifield for a 32-yard touchdown pass on the second play of the Bulldogs’ fpurth possession. The extra point failed and Lawrence led 14-8 with 2:14 to play in the first quarter.
William McDavid went 4 yards for a touchdown with 7:16 left in the first half, then Pollock ran in the two-point conversion for a 22-8 lead.
Thomas Jordan supplied the Bears’ second big play of the game when he broke free up the middle for a 75-yard kickoff return to cut the deficit to 22-14 with 7:04 left in the half. The two-point conversion run failed.
Pollock found Dalton Runyons on the first and only play of the next Lawrence drive as the senior receive ran through three tacklers for the 50-yard touchdown pass.
The final six minutes of the half were filled with turnovers as Pollock picked off a pass for the Bulldogs, while Kelly and Dallas Sergent each had interceptions for the Bears. Sergent, a senior end, had two interceptions in the game.
Crum scored on a 10-yard run in the third quarter and McDavid added a 4-yard run in the fourth quarter for the Bulldogs. Pollack had two-point conversions on both.
The Bears came up with their third and final big play of the night when Carter Howard caught a pass from Rhymer for a 50-yard touchdown with 1:55 left.
Williams broke free for a 53-yard run on the game’s final play, but Kelly ran him down at the 2 to save a touchdown.
Harlan County (0-5) is open next week before beginning district play on Sept. 29 at Southwestern. The 3-1 Bulldogs will play host to Estill County on Friday.