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Harrisburg earns at least a share of division title

By Jeffrey Drake, For The Southern

Saturday, October 11, 2008 12:19 AM CDT

MURPHYSBORO - On a night when Murphysboro honored their 1978 conference championship team, their opponents from Harrisburg clinched at least a share of the SIRR-Ohio crown with a 42-14 win.

Bulldogs' quarterback Reid Roper threw three touchdown passes as the Bulldogs rattled off 28 unanswered points at one point in the second half for their fourth straight victory.

"In the first half they (Murphysboro) had nine guys up in the box, and we were forced to throw the ball. Give our kids credit, when you do that, you've gotta block nine with seven and a running back, and our guys ran good routes and we were able to get a couple of touchdowns," Harrisburg coach Jason Roper said.

The Bulldogs turned two Red Devils' first half fumbles in to 14 points, both on touchdown passes from Roper to senior B.J. Davis.

But with just 18 seconds left in the first half, Murphysboro climbed right back in the game at 14-7 after forcing a Harrisburg punt.

The Red Devils covered 60 yards in that span, which resulted in an 18-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Jeremy Marshall to senior Nick Jones.

Jones led Murphysboro with 145 receiving yards on seven catches. Marshall got the nod under center after starting quarterback Dylan Craig was ruled ineligible for the week by the Illinois High School Association for participating in a punt, pass and kick contest during the season.

Murphysboro coach Bob Stilley said his team obviously missed the presence of Craig, but indicated his team didn't have to change their offensive game plan as Craig and Marshall were both in the quarterbacking plans in the preseason.

After giving up the late first half score, Coach Roper told his team they had two choices. He gave credit to an offensive line composed of all juniors and seniors for making some needed adjustments.

"I told them they could either go out and execute in the second half or they could push the panic button and let Murphysboro have the momentum. Our offensive linemen made the adjustment and that was probably the difference in the game," said Roper.

Harrisburg scored less than three minutes into the third quarter on the first of two Cain Sheldon touchdown runs to extend the lead to 21-7.

"We thought we played a very good first half," said Stilley. "But in the second half they just kinda whipped us up front."

Six minutes later the Bulldogs struck paydirt again when Reid Roper hit teammate Daniel Reed on an 11-yard pass in the back of the end zone.

Dawson Montfort added a one-yard score to push the Harrisburg edge to 42-7 midway through the fourth, before Marshall found Jones one more time for another 18-yard score late in the contest.

Harrisburg (4-3, 4-0) will host Massac County on Friday, while Murphysboro (3-4, 1-3) travels to Benton.

Harrisburg 0 14 14 14 - 42

Murphysboro 0 7 0 7 - 14

Scoring Summary

Second Quarter

HBG - Davis 20 pass from Roper (Brown kick), 8:52.

HBG - Davis 27 pass from Roper (Brown kick), 5:48.

MBO - Jones 18 pass from Marshall (Ahlfield kick), 0:00.

Third Quarter

HBG - Sheldon 12 run (Brown kick), 9:39.

HBG - D. Reed 12 pass from Roper (Brown kick), 3:14.

Fourth Quarter

HBG - Sheldon 4 run (Brown kick), 11:37.

HBG - Montfort 1 run (Brown kick), 6:06.

MBO - Jones 18 pass from Marshall (Ahlfield kick), 3:07.

Team Stats

HBG MBO

First Downs 18 17

Rushes-Yds 46-267 41-132

Passing Yds 113 153

Comp-Att-Int 5-8-0 10-19-0

Punts 1-31.0 4-31.0

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-2

Penalties-Yds 4-35 2-25

Individual Stats

RUSHING-HBG: Sheldon 6-42, King 6-67, Davis 14-92, Montfort 13-61. MBO: Tyrone 10-70, Jones 9-32, Davis 6-21.

PASSING-HBG: Roper 5-8-0-113. MBO: Marshall 10-19-0-153.

RECEIVING-HBG: Davis 2-47, Frymire 1-45, Sheldon 1-9. MBO: Jones 8-145, Harris 2-8.