Coming into Friday night’s game, Aquinas was a 13-point underdog on the road at Harlem, but came away with a stress-free, 12-7, victory.
When you hear a score like that, you may not think it was stress-free, but don’t let the score fool you. Aquinas controlled this game throughout.
It all started after the Fightin’ Irish’s defense came up with a goal line stand in the first quarter, and then a few possessions later, the Irish offense went to work.
They used the run game to set up the pass, and it worked to perfection as quarterback Jim Franklin found his favorite target Jack Rhodes who won the jump ball and came away with six points. The extra point attempt was blocked.
The next offensive possession resulted in a score as well, this one after a long drive that milked the clock and it led to a 1-yard run by Christian Kates that put Aquinas up 12-0 at halftime.
Aquinas flexes its muscles
In the second half, Harlem drove into Irish territory several times, but the defense always found a way to get the ball back and most of the time it was by way of a forced turnover.
The defense finally let up a score, giving up a long touchdown pass from Harlem’s Mercer Barton to Ronald Oliver, but it was too little, too late, as there were only two minutes left on the clock and the Bulldogs had no remaining timeouts.
This was a much-needed win for the Irish as they lost their last region game to Westside before Hurricane Helene forced a two-week stoppage of play.
Aquinas won it with physicality, and that’s hard to do after a near three-week break. When asked how he kept his team focused and ready to go, coach James Leonard said it wasn’t a hard task.
“When we brought our team in on Sunday, it was the most excited I have seen them in a long time,” Leonard said. “These guys love each other and they play for each other.”
The win marks Leonard’s 14th win over an opponent ranked in the AJC poll as Harlem was ranked 10th. This means, he is averaging at least one win against a ranked opponent per season, which is hard to do wherever you’re at.
His current team is loaded with talent, especially on offense, so it will be fun to see how far this team can go going forward.
Aquinas will host Baldwin on Friday Oct. 18 as it continues to get back into the normal swing of football Friday nights.
Harlem’s QB situation in flux
As for Harlem, it was the Bulldogs’ first loss of the season. They are in a little bit different boat than Aquinas as their starting quarterback Brent Coleman went down against Washington-Wilkes which has caused coach Mark Boiter and his staff to scramble a bit to find an offensive identity ever since.
They have Giovanni Arroyo and Mercer Barton splitting snaps, and both are getting better each week, but it makes it tough on a staff when you play a tough opponent.
Boiter still believes
There are no excuses though, the Bulldogs know what they have to do to compete for a region title and Boiter believes they still can.
“The old saying is that you learn more from losses than wins, and obviously we don’t want to lose any, but we’re going to learn from this, and we’ll try to get healthy and try to figure out ways to score more points,” Boiter said. “We still are going to try and make a run at a region title. That’s our goal.”
The Bulldogs are playing their tails off on defense, only allowing 14.6 points per game. They kept a really good Aquinas offense out of the endzone for most of the night, and if they can keep up that intensity, it will give the new-look offense time to improve.
Harlem (5-1) has a massive region test next week as they go on the road to Westside (6-0), which currently sits firmly in first place in the region after knocking off Cross Creek 42-3 Friday.
