Come on Chestmont, your sounding like a novice observer. Your better than that. The first game was played in August. Kane was starting his first game at Qb for Harrisburg. They didnt even play him in the scrimmage from what I recall. Coatesville knocked him out of the game by halftime. Penalties most defintely. Too many and at bad times pushed the Red Raiders back on offense and put them in long situations. Something you can not do against this Harrisburg defense. They are really fast and will pin their ears back and come get you. They had a great gameplan to contain Ortega and it appeared they were doubling or bracketing Bryant on some plays. Advantage Harrisburg! Defensively, Coatesville struggled in the second quarter to contain Kane. He got loose and made a couple of big plays to keep drives going. He made a perfect throw to beat Young barely on the first TD and then he made two Red Raider defenders miss to get into the endzone with 5 seconds left in the half. Lost the turnover battle 1-0. Coatesville had a huge opportunity to intercept a screen pass in the 3rd or 4th quarter down 21-17 and possible return it for a TD. However, went right through DE hands.
In hindsight, Coatesville probably played their worst game of the year collectively at the most inopportune time. However, Harrisburg was responsible for causing Coatesville to make these mistakes. They deserve credit. They were well prepared. Had two weeks to prepare actually. I attended the game. After th efirst quarter, score was 0-0. Coatesville had good field position but went backwards. Harrisburg hit on a long pass play and a long run in the second quarter to set up there first two scores. Kane made some plays because he runs a 4.3 something but other then that Coatesville defense held Harrisburg to under 100yds of total offense in the second half. Harrisburg has a defensive end that came into the game with 17 sacks, a qb going to Army and an LB who is a 5 star going to Texas A+M. Some of their lineman when the become seniors will eventually be D1 or 2 just based on size. Based on all this information, maybe the question should be how did Harrisburg end up losing by 31 points in the first game at home?