ROGERS — With their passing game all but grounded at Gates Stadium on Friday night, the No 2 ranked Har-Ber Wildcats did what they do best - run the football.

Running back Gordon Welch scored his third touchdown on Har-Ber’s first play in overtime and the Wildcats beat the Rogers Heritage War-Eagles 21-14 in 7AWest action.

Welch rushed 35 times for 152 yards and scored from the 10 for the game-winner.

He also weaved his way 14 yards in the fourth quarter to put the unbeaten Wildcats (7-0, 4-0 in 7A-West) up 14-7.

He scored from the 2 in the first quarter.

On Heritage’s overtime possession, quarterback Reed Brown fired incomplete to Grant Driver twice in the corner of the end zone. Defensive tackle Eric Pearce sacked Brown on third down. Defensive back Levi Copher batted down Brown’s pass to Driver on fourth-and-17 at the goal line.

“We’ve leaned on our defense all year,” Har-Ber coach Chris Wood said. “The offense was sloppy. The defense made the plays, especially in the overtime.”

Heritage (5-2, 2-2) answered Welch’s second touchdown with a 12-play, 79-yard scoring match to tie the game 14-14 and send the game into overtime.

Jimmy Britton scored from the 5 with 3:47 left to play, leaping over cornerback Drew Lawson into the end zone.

Har-Ber had a chance to win the game on a field goal but Heritage defensive end Conor Bolton sacked Har-Ber quarterback Ryan Luther on fourth-and-4 at the Heritage 31.

Brown then completed passes of 12 and 16 to Driver to put the War Eagles in field goal range at the Har-Ber 30 with 20 second left to play.

Lawson ended the threat, intercepting Brown at the 19.

“That was a huge interception because they were in field-goal range,” Wood said. “Drew did a great job gettingover there and picking it off.

“We’re where we want to be right now because of our defense.”

Heritage gambled badly on fourth-and-2 at its 41 early in the game. Zac Stewart came up short and Har-Ber drove seven plays in for the opening score. Welch rushed six times, once for 18 yards, and scored from the 2.

Travis Entwisle took an end-around 29 yards down the sidelines on the first play of the second quarter, tying the game at 7.

“We had a good game plan,” Heritage coach Perry Escalante said. “We thought we could beat them. We were right there. We had every opportunity to do that.”

Brown completed 21 of 36 passes for 201 yards with two interceptions. He was sacked three times in the first half for 28 yards, and once more for 10 yards in the second half.

Wildcats’ linebacker Hunter Kissinger nailed him twice.

“You can’t turn the ball over,” Escalante said of the interceptions. “The picks just killed us. Their defense hadabsolutely everything to do with that.

“We played a good defense but when you turn the ball over in clutch situations like that that’s going to get you beat.”

Welch had 85 yards on 18carries the first half.

“He pounded,” Wood said of Welch. “Our passing game really wasn’t there tonight. I mean, we were just off. They loaded the box, had nine guys in there and we were able to establish the run a little bit.

“Sometimes you have to win ugly ones and we did tonight.”

Har-Ber rushed 50 times for 187 yards on the War Eagles, which lost their second straight 7A-West game.

Sports, Pages 9 on 10/21/2009

Comments

To report abuse or misuse of this area please hit the "Suggest Removal" link in the comment to alert our online managers.

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.