Long passes lift Bengals past Raiders

Most people in Mollenkopf Stadium on Aug. 29 figured the Benedictine Bengals were going to be satisfied with running out the clock, holding a 17-10 lead over host Warren Harding in the season-opener for both teams. Most people figured wrong. Facing a second-and-long situation, senior quarterback Ronnie Schultz hit junior Marvin Conkle in stride for a 75-yard touchdown, providing a two-score lead with 1 minute, 36 seconds remaining.

Warren Harding scored a touchdown with five seconds remaining to make it a one-score game at 24-17.

But that’s as close as it got.

“I was pumped up,” said Schultz when he got the sideline call from Coach Jarritt Goode to go for the home-run ball instead of running the clock out. “I’m always ready to pass. I look to my right and I see Marvs out there, I know I can just throw it anywhere and he’ll go get it.”

The Schultz-to-Conkle connection gave the host Raiders problems all night. Earlier in the game, Schultz hit Conkle in stride on an 80-yard pass play that gave the Bengals a 14-3 lead. While Harding did a

good job against the Benedictine running game, holding the Bengals to 63 yards on the ground on 31 carries, Schultz and Conkle were differencemakers.

“They were biting on ball-fakes,” said Conkle of the fake handoffs. “(The pass) was there. The playaction pass was there.”

The deep passes were nobrainers, in Goode’s mind. “We take what a team gives us,” he said. “They were giving us that so we took a shot at it. We made the call.”

Harding took an early 3-0 lead by taking advantage of a botched snap on a punt, cashing in with a 21yard ield goal early in the second quarter.

But a few minutes later,

Andre Rogers picked off a pass by Harding quarterback Elijah Taylor and returned it 30 yards to the Raiders’ 5. Two plays later, Gary Merrill bulled in from the 3.

“Attitude and effort,” said Goode of his team’s performance on defense. “We didn’t execute how we wanted all the time, but that attitude and effort got us through tonight.”

Benedictine took a 14-3 lead into halftime with the first Schultz-to-Conkle hook-up, and the lead was then extended to 17-3 with a 31-yard field goal by Ivan Shuran in the third quarter.

Harding cut the margin to 17-10 on a corner fade in the fourth. But not long after that, the Bengals put the

game out of reach with the second Schultz-to-Conkle bomb.

Harding outgained Benedictine, 294-274. Schultz was 8 of 21 for 211 yards. Schultz also ran for a teamhigh 43 yards.

Taylor threw for 223 yards and two scores for the Raiders.

After talking with his team, Goode praised the Bengals for their poise. While the Bengals do return a wealth of experience this year, the unique preseason — because of COVID-19 — and the lack of a scrimmage schedule this month gave the secondyear coach pause.

“You don’t know what it’s like until the bullets start flying for real,” said Goode of the lack of game-day experience

for some of his players. “While we do have experience — not game experience all around — we have some guys who didn’t start last year. They needed to get that game-time experience. That was good for them tonight.”

With the win in hand, the Bengals set their focus on a Week 2 trip to Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary. It’s part of a brutal schedule that also includes Akron Hoban, Massillon, Austintown Fitch and St. Edward.

“We don’t care who we play,” Schultz said. “We want to beat whoever is across from us. We’re ready to go. We could play anybody in the state and I’ll take my guys over them.”