HARRISON — Harrison High School’s football team has reached one goal by extending its season into November. But there’s more milestones to go after.
The sixth-seeded Wildcats (10-2) will try to become the first team in program history to win three playoff games in a season when they meet No. 2 seed La Salle (10-2) in a Division II, Region 8 semifinal Friday night at Ross.
“We’re exactly where I thought we would be with a chance to make it to the regional final,” Harrison coach Derek Rehage said. “I wish we had a couple guys that got dinged up and were lost for the year, but nobody’s 100 percent at this point. I’m happy with our team right now. We had a team in the quarterfinals on a running clock, so we’ve got guys playing at a high level. We’ve got a chance.”
Senior free safety and receiver Hank Rotert said the Wildcats have been thinking about a game of this magnitude since losing to Anderson in last year’s regional semifinals, so he’s glad it’s finally here.
“It’s all routine now. We’re just working to perfect our craft for the game coming up,” Rotert said. “Our coach says if we play with energy and we play disciplined, we play very well. But we’ve struggled with consistency. I think one of our biggest problems is beating ourselves. You saw that in the second half at Xenia last week.
“I think we’re the underdogs, so I don’t think there’s a whole lot of pressure on us. We’re playing with house money. We were in this position last year, so we’ve just got to finish. Even if we’re not at full strength, we still have kids who can make plays, and I can make a play every once in a while. We’re a good team. I think we should be fine.”
Harrison has an 11-15 record in 16 years of playoff competition, winning two postseason games in 1988, 2006, 2019, 2023 and 2024. The Wildcats made it to the state semifinals in 1988 and the regional finals in 2006 and 2019 because less teams qualified for the playoffs those years.
La Salle is a perennial state power that’s 26-8 in 13 trips to the playoffs and won state championships in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2019.
And the Lancers have dominated Harrison in their four previous meetings, all in the playoffs. The results were 56-24 in 2014, 45-10 in 2017, 45-8 in 2019 and 42-14 in 2021.
“I don’t look at tradition. I don’t look at the hump they’re trying to get over or how good we’ve been,” eighth-year Lancers coach Pat McLaughlin said. “It’s preparation in practice and putting it together on Friday night. Our kids aren’t scared of anything, but they’re not looking past anything. They’ve embraced the idea of working every day to be prepared.”
Harrison has good size and can battle with most teams when it comes to bulk and strength, but both coaches said La Salle has the clear advantage in speed in this one.
Rehage said the Lancers are especially fast on defense and have playmakers all over the place on that side of the ball. Senior linebacker Brady O’Connor (6-3, 210), the Greater Catholic League South Division Co-Defensive Player of the Year with St. Xaver’s Kobe Clapper, heads La Salle’s 4-2-5 defense.
“No. 15 (O’Connor) is legit. He’s an all-state caliber linebacker,” Rehage said. “Their D-line is fast, physical and aggressive. And their DBs are the fastest we’ve seen all year. Their speed is what separates them on defense. They’re just razor fast.”
McLaughlin said he’s got a number of guys playing both ways now that weren’t doing that earlier in the year. He was worried that they would take a pounding against the Lancers’ difficult schedule, so they shelved most of the two-way concepts until later in the regular season.
O’Connor is one of those guys. He’s an H-back, tight end and receiver on offense and will continue his career at the Naval Academy.
McLaughlin said his defensive line isn’t huge, but guys like Fergus Kreider, Markel McConnell and Dereion Spraggs “eat up blocks and allow our backers to run free. Fergus plays with his hair on fire.”
The offensive line does have quite a bit of size with a couple 300-pounders. La Salle uses a spread offense that’s fast-paced with no huddle. McLaughlin said that tempo has played a big role in the Lancers averaging more than 40 points in their last four games.
“We’re going to try to speed the game up as fast as possible,” McLaughlin said.
Senior Patrick McLaughlin, the coach’s son, is the quarterback and has committed to Dayton. He’s completed 131-of-209 passes for 1,786 yards and 13 touchdowns with eight interceptions. He also leads a balanced ground attack with 653 yards and six TDs on 136 carries.
“Patrick’s been playing at a really high level the last four or five weeks,” Pat McLaughlin said. “He can run it. He can throw it. He sees the field very well. I would say the best thing about him this last month or so is his decision-making. He’s getting the ball in the right spots and taking care of the ball.”
Isaac Goldschmidt (102 carries, 487 yards, six TDs), Ty Brown (57 carries, 372 yards, four TDs) and Devin Byrd (55 carries, 190 yards, three TDs) are also part of the stable of running backs. Max Welter tops the receiving corps with 39 catches for 679 yards and four scores.
“We’ve been able to spread teams out and take the top off defenses,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve been hard to stop the last couple weeks because we’ve been attacking all areas of the field.”
He is concerned about the Wildcats’ explosiveness. Quarterback Dickie Engel has converted 114-of-185 throws for 2,024 yards and 30 touchdowns with eight interceptions.
Harrison had to get a little more creative offensively when Preston Flick, a do-everything kind of guy who was effective running and catching the ball, went down with a season-ending knee injury in Week 7 against Mount Healthy. Leading receiver Josh Adelsperger got hurt during last Friday’s contest at Xenia.
“Injuries are part of the game. We’ve adapted nicely on offense,” Rehage said. “Cohen (Hering) has come over and done some nice things, and Grant Dallio has come over and added a physical nature that we haven’t really had. Guys have practiced multiple positions, so it’s not something completely new to them.”
Senior Cole Koops has rushed 220 times for 1,858 yards and 19 TDs for the Wildcats. He’s the guy that worries McLaughlin the most.
“He’s one of the best running backs we’ve seen all year and we’ve seen some good ones,” the La Salle coach said. “He runs hard and sets up blocks well. He makes so many plays and runs through so many tackles. I would love to know his yards after contact because it’s a lot. The scary thing is they can run the ball and then play-action and get a couple deep shots on you. You see that an awful lot.”
McLaughlin said both defenses can be very good, but both have had some tough moments this year. Harrison got rolled 51-14 by Columbus Watterson, while the Lancers absorbed a 38-0 defeat at the hands of Moeller.
“Everybody has a bad game,” McLaughlin said. “Throw Moeller out for us and throw Watterson out for them. I still think they’re a very good defense. They remind me of Kings a little bit. They’re moving a lot of guys around. They’re stunting. They’re really creating a lot of confusion. It’s hard to kind of see where their guys are going to end up.”
Rehage said the Wildcats had Watterson down 7-6 after one period before the wheels fell off. He said the Eagles had a lot of wrestlers on the field and it showed in their toughness.
“We scored the most points against Watterson, and we were the only team to have them down all year,” Rehage said. “Those are morale victories that don’t mean anything.”
McLaughlin said this feels more like a regional final than a semifinal. Rotert said he’s happy his class has been able to help Harrison become consistently relevant again.
“I think last year’s senior class set a good example for us as hard workers,” Rotert said. “I think we have a good thing going on now. We have a new weight room. Our coaches are coaching us well. We want to stay at this level and keep going.”
The HHS-La Salle winner advances to the regional final to face either No. 1 seed Anderson (12-0) or No. 5 Mount Healthy (10-2) next Friday at a neutral site.
