GOBLINS PITCH SHUTOUT IN FIRST CONFERENCE WIN

The Harrison Goblins picked up their first 5A-West conference victory on Friday night.

The Clarksville Panthers were on the receiving end of a 26-0 Goblin shutout at F.S. Garrison Stadium.

Harrison got off to a slow start, but got things cranked up in the second half.

“We never could get in a rhythm,” said Harrison head coach Joel Wells. “There was a flag here and a flag there. It really took us out of our rhythm in the first half. In the second half, we got a little bit of a rhythm going. We’re just going to have to clean it up. We’re going to have to play at a higher level to be a playoff team. I thought we played well on defense. Offensively, we did a lot of good stuff. We just hurt ourselves with penalties.”

Harrison got a 4-yard touchdown run from Josh Williams to open the second half, extending the Goblins’ lead to 12-0 after a failed 2-point conversion attempt.

After forcing Clarksville to turn the ball over on downs, Goblin quarterback Noah Ditmanson hit Daniel McCormick in the endzone for a score. Micah Ford hit the extra point to move the score to 19-0.
The Goblins put the game on ice when Hunter Holtby broke off a 30-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter.

The lone score of the first half came when Ditmanson weaved his way through the Clarksville defense for a 17-yard score for a 6-0 halftime lead.

After a lopsided loss at Morrilton the week before, it took the Goblins a half of football to get back on track.

“I thought we had a little hangover in the first half,” Wells commented. “I thought we had a hangover from that game last week.

It stunned us a little bit. We lost a little confidence. We came back in the second half and I thought we executed a lot better. We played a little bit harder. We practiced kind of sloppy this week and that’s how we played. We’ll get it fixed and next week we’ll play better.”

Injuries played a hand in the Goblins’ slow start. Quarterback Taner Edwards missed time in practice throughout the week, a factor Wells said affected the play on the field.

“It affects everything,” he said. “What it affected more than anything was our timing. Taner didn’t get to practice hardly any this week. Noah’s been banged up as well. We didn’t get as quality of practice this week as we needed and it showed.

Those are throws that Taner doesn’t miss. He gave it a go and did the best he could. He’ll be better next week. It’s just lack of practice. When you miss 3 or 4 days of practice, you’re not sharp.”

Despite struggling to move the ball in the first half, the Goblins’ goal against Clarksville was to earn their first conference victory, a task the team completed.

“We told our guys, ‘After the ballgame tonight, we have to be 4-1,’” Wells stated. “It doesn’t matter what the score is. None of that matters. We’re going to try and push that behind us and know we’ve got a good Vilonia football team coming in next week. We feel like if we can win that football game, we’ve got a leg up on a playoff spot.

Harrison’s defense earned a shutout on Friday night, something Wells believes will build some momentum heading into a matchup with a good Vilonia team.

“I think we can build some momentum,”

the coach concluded. “We can build some momentum off the way our defense played. Getting a shutout, anytime you can do that, it’s always a positive. We’ll play a better Vilonia team next week. They’re an option team like Clarksville, so it will help our preparation that we got some of that this week. We just have to clean it and play at a higher level. I believe we will.”