Austintown-Fitch and Harding are an even 5-5 against one another since September of 2017, but not for long. The Austintown-Fitch Falcons will play host again on Friday to welcome the Harding Raiders, where kickoff is scheduled at 7:00 p.m. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Austintown-Fitch is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. Everything went their way against Mayfield as Austintown-Fitch made off with a 31-7 win. Considering the Falcons have won four games by more than 23 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Harding). They simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat John Hay 37-0. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Raiders.
Chaz Coleman had a dynamite game for Harding, throwing for 112 yards and three touchdowns while completing 77.8% of his passes, and also rushing for 88 yards on only seven carries. Coleman also deserves a shoutout for his performance on D, forcing a fumble and making five total tackles (2.0 for loss). Marcus Crum was another key player, picking up 62 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Harding has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a nice bump to their 8-3 record this season. Those good results were due in large part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 14.3 points per game. As for Austintown-Fitch, their record is now 8-3.
Austintown-Fitch lost to Harding at home by a decisive 35-21 margin when the teams last played two weeks ago. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Coleman, who rushed for 76 yards and a touchdown, and also picked up 42 receiving yards and a touchdown. Now that Austintown-Fitch knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
