Marion Harding closes season with win over Pleasant
MARION ― The victory bell never sounded better. The congratulations and attaboys were well received. Even the water bath was okay.
First-year head football coach Dan Arndt ― who took over the Marion Harding program a little over a week before the start of the 2022 campaign when previous head coach Demetrius Ross resigned ― and the Presidents he led waited a season to experience the thrill of victory.
It didn't happen until Week 10, but it was a good experience all the same.
Harding held off a late Pleasant charge to pick up its first win of the season, beating the Spartans 30-26 Friday night in Harding Stadium in a Mid Ohio Athletic Conference game.
"These kids worked their butts off all year," Arndt said. "It’s hard to come out here when you’re 0-9, but they just kept coming. That’s something that makes me extremely proud, that they believed in us as coaches and believed in themselves."
For senior night, the Presidents played with an emotional charge at the beginning. On their first five plays, they produced 14 points thanks to a pair of breakaway runs from Lem Reynolds on a 59-yarder and Trinity Keith on a 76-yarder.
"We just started really slow, and I don’t know what the deal was. It’s a credit to Harding. They came more ready to play than what we were," Pleasant coach Kevin Kline said.
Harding bumped the lead up to 20-0 midway through the second period when Alex Stokes hit Nick Hecker for a 20-yard touchdown pass, but the Spartans proved to be stubborn.
With 1:47 left in the half, the Pleasant offense strung together an 8-play, 52-yard drive that was capped by an Owen Lowry quarterback sneak from the 1, just crossing the goal line as the clock read 0:00 and cutting the lead to 20-7.
On the opening series of the third period, the Spartans did it again, this time going 70 yards on 11 plays with Jace Tractenberg running a 15-yard counter play for a score to get within 20-13.
"Mad respect for Coach Kline and his staff over there. He’s a class act. I think he’s doing amazing things at Pleasant, and I wish him the best moving forward," Arndt said.
Harding freshman Ray J Scott-Harbolt recovered a fumble at the Pleasant 25 on the final play of the third period, and the Prexies took advantage of the short field. Harding QB Alex Stokes appeared to be sacked but somehow found Marreon Ross for a 16-yard pickup and first down. Two plays later Stokes dove into the end zone on a 1-yard sneak to put his team up 27-13 with 11:23 left.
However, Pleasant had answers.
Devon Hord made both of his catches in the game on the ensuing drive, hauling in a 17-yard TD with 9:21 left to cut the Harding lead to 27-20.
Fired up, the Pleasant defense forced a three-and-out and took over at the 50 after a short punt. Three plays later, Lowry hit Carver Kline for a 33-yard touchdown with 7:28 left. Instead of attempting the extra point, the Spartans tried a 2-point pass play to take the lead, but it was incomplete.
With less than three minutes to go, Pleasant got Harding into a third-and-9 at midfield, but was flagged for a pass interference on a deep throw and then a second flag flew for an unsportsmanlike penalty on the Pleasant sideline. The result was new life for Harding at the 19. Pleasant stiffened again, but Harding bled more of the block before Jordan Hensley kicked a 31 yard field goal to put the Prexies up by four points with 68 seconds left.
In the final minute, the Spartans couldn't string together enough positive plays to make a difference.
"It stinks for your seniors," Kline said of the loss that drops them to 1-9, 0-7. "We had a pretty small senior class and those guys put a lot of effort into it and you want them to be rewarded, too. We just came up short tonight. They made more plays than we did, and that’s what it comes down to. They had a nice run game early on, and we couldn’t stop them. We made a few adjustments and that seemed to help.
"It’s a big rivalry game and you always want to win that rivalry game, but their kids just outplayed us tonight."
Only a sophomore, Lowry was 20 of 33 passing for 197 yards, while Cadence Varner made nine catches for 79 yards and six others caught passes. Lowry also led the rushing attack with 49 yards on 15 carries. The Spartans amassed 18 first downs and 346 total yards, but they were penalized six times for 57 yards.
"I thought our kids played hard tonight, and we’ll keep fighting," Kline said. "We’ll get after it in the offseason, and we’ll try to get this back to the tradition that we’re used to."
Harding ran for 264 yards on 37 carries as Keith finished with 120 yards on 12 carries and Reynolds had 101 yards on a dozen tries as both were limited in the second half with injuries. Freshman Marcus Hemphill tried to fill the void with 33 rushing yards in the fourth period.
Stokes was 5 of 10 passing for 46 yards with Ross catching three passes for 25 yards. The Presidents had 12 first downs and didn't turn it over, but were penalized seven times for 70 yards.
"I love these kids. I love this town. I love this school. That’s why I’ve never left. It’s special," Arndt said.
The win ended Harding's season's at 1-9 overall and 1-6 in the MOAC.
"We played a lot of young kids again," Arndt said. "Hopefully this is a great big building block going into next year."
The coach has no regrets for stepping up to fill the void left at head coach.
"I am absolutely glad. The first person I went to after Coach Kline was Coach (Sean) Kearns (Harding's athletic director). I thanked him for this amazing opportunity. I wouldn’t change anything for the world. It’s going to make me a better coach," Arndt said while dripping wet, shaking hands and after listening the the bell ring.
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This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Marion Harding closes season with win over Pleasant
