Somerset — Ten weeks ago, the Warriors got the better of Harlan County in the Black Bears’ season opener in the Ray Correll Bowl.

Last night at the Reservation in the first round of the Class 5A, Region 4 Playoffs, it was Harlan County who got the better of Southwestern in the Black Bears’ 20-7 win over the Warriors.

The Harlan County win ended the Warriors’ season with a 7-4 record, while the Black Bears will advance on to the second round of the playoffs.

A much-improved Harlan County defense and some sloppy Warrior offensive plays put Southwestern in a deep hole for most of the game.

“I felt like we weren’t ready to play football in that first game against Southwestern, and they might have been coming into the start of the season with a little more experience than we had,” Harlan County coach Tom Larkey said. “Coming back from last year, we had eight new starters that night on offense. Southwestern already had a game under their belt, which we hadn’t. I think a lot of that made a difference and since then we have improved outstandingly in ever aspect of the game especially on defense.”

The game was still up for grabs going into the fourth quarter with the Black Bears leading 14-7. However, the Warriors had four possessions in the final quarter and gave the ball back all four times.

In the Warriors’ first possession of the final quarter, they were forced to punt after a three-and-out. On their next possession, they gave the ball back on loss of downs. On the next Warriors’ possession after they were backed up to their own 6-yard line, Southwestern gave the ball away on an interception, which was ran back for a score. Then, on the Warriors’ last ditch effort in the final minutes of the game, Southwestern turned the ball over again on loss of downs.

“We had too many turnovers and we didn’t take care of the ball like we were suppose to. Our defense played well as always, but our offense didn’t show up,” Southwestern coach Dale Anderson said. “(Harlan County) kept us backed up to the goal line all night long and that was the hard part. We had the shadow of the goal post right on us all night long. We just could not get to them and when we did we couldn’t do anything with it.”

“Harlan played well tonight and we didn’t play our best game and the best team moves on,” Anderson added. “Harlan turned it around on us from our earlier game.”

The first half turned into a battle of field position with both teams sticking to their ground games.

The Black Bears struck first with a 10-yard touchdown run by Dwight Burgan to put Harlan County up 7-0 after the Josh Jenkins PAT.

In the opening minutes of the second quarter, the Warriors put together their best and only scoring drive of the game that consumed nearly six minutes off the clock and ended on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Zack Turpin to Alan Williams. The Logan Starnes PAT tied the score at 7-7 with 10:38 left in the second quarter.

For the next 10 minutes of the first half, the two teams had two unsuccessful possessions apiece.

With 1:58 left in the half, Harlan County quarterback T.J. Green hit Jake Middleton for a 7-yard touchdown pass to put the Black Bears up 14-7.

With under a minute left in the half, Southwestern squandered their next possession on a fumble in the backfield going into intermission.

“That fumble we had before halftime was big and that was a terrible thing to have happen,” Anderson commented. “Harlan County’s defense did a good job of penetrating and causing us problems all night long with our offense.”

Neither team could make an offensive surge in the third quarter, but Southwestern spent most of their offensive series with a long field.

On their next to last possession of the game and deep in their own territory, Southwestern was forced to get out of their comfortable running game and had to pass, which resulted in an interception. The pick was by Harlan County’s Jordy Brewer, who ran the ball back for a 27-yard touchdown and gave the Black Bears their winning margin of 20-7 with 2:20 left in the game.

Harlan County outrushed Southwestern 141 yards to 51 yards, with the Black Bears’ Green rushing for 66 yards on 21 carries.

Southwestern ended the season with a District 7 runner-up finish, a Raffertys Bowl title and a Ray Correll Bowl title.

“We would have loved to gone further in the playoffs, but we went beyond my expectations this year,” Anderson said. “This team, coming in, was a young group and we had some good seniors in there. They played a tough schedule and did it as good as any team I have seen. I’m awful proud of them right now.”



HC 7 7 0 6 — 20

SW 0 7 0 0 — 7

First Quarter

Harlan Co. — Burgan 10 run (Jenkins PAT) 3:50.

Second Quarter

Southwestern — Williams 14 pass from Turpin (Starnes PAT) 10:38.

Harlan Co. — Middleton 7 pass from Green (Jenkins PAT) 0:51.

Fourth Quarter

Harlan Co. — Brewer 7 pass interception (PAT no good) 2:20.

RUSHING

Southwestern — Mote 15-41, Floyd 12-24. Harlan Co. — Green 21-66, Taylor 16-57, McMillian 3-19.

PASSING

Southwestern — Turpin 6-17 92 TD. Harlan Co. — Green 10-12 55 TD.

RECEIVING

Southwestern — Williams 3-54 TD, Floyd 2-25, Fowler 1-13. Harlan Co. — Maggard 5-20, Burgan 3-18, Middleton 1-8 TD.