Defense

The Harlan Green Dragons capitalized on three Lynn Camp mistakes to down the Wildcats in district action at LCHS, Friday night. It was a huge game for both teams as far as the district race goes. The Dragons came into Lynn Camp with wins over Evarts (43-6) and Cumberland (21-14) and left with a 3-0 district slate. Lynn Camp fell to 1-1 in the district.
“We have to win out if we want a home game for the playoffs,” said Wildcats coach David Mitchell.
Mitchell said the key in the game was turnovers. “The bad snap and the blocked punt really hurt us. They had three drives of 51 yards and got three touchdowns out of that.”
“It’s just tough to overcome,” said Mitchell.
The first mishap came when Lynn Camp was set to punt the ball on fourth down and the snap went over the head of punter, Sidney Wagner. Wagner tried to throw a pass but the Dragons took over at the Wildcats 32. Six plays later Chase Jones hit Jon Lundy on a 17-yard pass play for a 6-0 lead. The PAT made it 7-0.
Another turning point in the game came on the final drive of the first half when Lynn Camp drove the ball from its own 28 yard line down to the one yard marker and failed to get in the end zone.
“That was huge for us,” said Mitchell. “That takes the life right out of you.”
On the final play Wagner suffered a knee injury and had to be taken to the hospital. His status was uncertain as of Monday. “It’s still up in the air,” said Mitchell.
“We didn’t play with a lot of emotion,” said Mitchell. “We had probably the best week of practice we have had all year and I thought our guys were ready to play. Then to come out like we did was certainly a disappointment to me.”
With Wagner out of the game, the load belonged to Roskopf and quarterback Jonah Mitchell.
Lynn Camp moved the ball but couldn’t get it in the end zone and two more big mistakes led to 14 Harlan points. A blocked Nick Scalf punt gave the ball to the Dragons early in the third quarter. They would score off the mistake when Jones ran the ball in from the one-yard line. The PAT pushed the lead out to 14-0.
On the next Lynn Camp possession, Mitchell was picked off by Lundy, who ran the ball down to the 11 yard line before being hauled down. The Dragons scored with 2:34 left in the period when Jones hit Pope on an 11-yard pass play for the three-touchdown lead.
Roskopf prevented the shutout when he broke loose for a 75-yard run midway through the fourth quarter. Roskopf ran in the conversion, cutting the lead to 13 points.
The Wildcats drove the ball inside the 20 yard line twice late in the game, but the Dragons’ defense wouldn’t break and came away with the stop both times.
The Wildcats will travel over to Evarts Friday night for another big district game. “Every time you play a district game it will be big from here on out,” said Mitchell. “We have every opportunity to finish second, we have to take care of business and win out.”
“That is a big task in itself,” said Mitchell.
“Evarts is a lot like us,” said Mitchell. “They have had games they could have won but have been their own worst enemy as far as turning the ball over.”
“I expect a very tough game from Evarts,” said Mitchell. “We had an incident down here last year that will add fuel to the fire. Our guys didn’t have anything to do with it but that’s just part of it.”
“Their quarterback (Derek Cochran) is pretty good,” said Mitchell. “He makes a lot happen for them. And their tailback (Adam Helton) makes a lot of good plays for them,” Mitchell said.
“They have been in a spread early in the season but the last two games they have been in a wing-T,” said Mitchell.
With Wagner out, Mitchell is looking for others to really step up. “It really limits us,” said Mitchell. “It basically puts everything back in Joe’s (Roskopf) hands. He (Wagner) had really started making plays for us and made two or three big plays in a row. He was doing the things to make the defense loosen up.”
“Somebody has to move up, I don’t know who it’s going to be, but we have to get some more productivity out of our fullback as far as running the ball,” said Mitchell. “And, that is probably some of our fault as coaches.”
“We might have to move Joe to tailback because he can catch and run the ball,” said Mitchell.
After their battle with Evarts on the road, the Wildcats will have a week off to regroup. Gametime at Evarts is 7:30 p.m.

Harlan 7 0 14 0 -21
Lynn Camp 0 0 0 0- 8
First Quarter
H – Lundy, 13 pass from Jones (Bianchi kick)
Third Quarter
H – Jones, 1 run (Bianchi kick)
H – Pope, 11 pass from Jones (Bianchi kick)
Fourth Quarter
LC – Roskopf, 75 run (Roskopf run)

Individual Statistics
Rushing: Harlan, Lundy 14-51, Belcher 9-24, Jones 11-19. Lynn Camp: Roskopf 40-248, Wagner 4-37, Mitchell 5-41, Scalf 3-5, Bray 1-0. Totals: Harlan 34-94, Lynn Camp 57-331.
Passing: Harlan: Jones 7-14-0-92, Pope 0-1-1-0. Lynn Camp: Mitchell 1-11-2-7, Abner 1-6-0-12, Wagner 0-1-0-0.
Receiving: Harlan: Sheffied 2-37, Goodin 2-18, Belcher 1-13, Lundy 1-13, Pope 1-11. Lynn Camp: Wagner 1-19, Roskopf 1-12, Bray 1 (-12).