FORT WAYNE - After the type of seasons that NorthWood and Fort Wayne Harding have had on the offensive side of the football, the general thought was that their matchup on Friday night could very easily become a shootout affair.

After all, Harding had scored more than 60 points twice in the postseason and NorthWood had one of the most talented offenses in the area.

However, that offensive firepower didn't kick in for the Panthers until the fourth quarter and Harding didn't show the explosive offense that has made the Hawks an offensive juggernaut, but they did have enough to finish NorthWood's season 28-21 in the Class 3A, No. 19 regional championship.

NorthWood's lone first half touchdown came from junior running back Aaron Huber on a short run in the second quarter.

NorthWood trailed 14-7 at the half and 20-7 after three quarters, but were still in a position to battle back. However, when Harding scored again early in the fourth quarter, things looked bleak for the Panthers.

Then Panther quarterback Charlie Roeder and company woke up. Roeder connected with junior running back Aaron Huber on a touchdown pass with three minutes to play to close the score to 28-14. On the ensuing kickoff, NorthWood recovered the ball to make things interesting.

Roeder connected with Huber again to get the ball down to the Harding 20-yard line and then he completed another pass to get to the 3-yard line.

Roeder called his own number on the option play and scored on a run up the middle to close the score to 28-21 with just over two minutes left.

NorthWood couldn't recover a second onsides kick in a row and Allan Ganaway picked up a 9-yard run on first down and moved over the first down marker on the next carry to keep the Panther defense on the field just a bit longer.

A Harding fumble on the next possession probably made Harding head coach Scott Cooley's heart skip a beat, but the Hawks recovered the ball.

The NorthWood defense stopped Harding, but the offense took over with less than 10 seconds to play and could only throw up a Hail Mary desperation pass that was not completed as the game ended.

NorthWood ended with 354 yards of total offense to 349 yards for Harding. The Hawks' Allan Ganaway, who carried for more than 200 yards last week, rushed for 165 yards. Huber ended the season with 123 yards on the ground and Roeder was 17 of 30 for 203 yards through the air.

"(The NorthWood players) don't give up," NorthWood assistant coach Jim Snider said on WLRX radio after the game. "They have nothing to be ashamed of. You have to give the kids all the credit in the world. Down 28-7, they could have give up. It's too bad we didn't have the intensity at other points in the game that we had at the end."

Harding got scores on a 20-yard pass from Chris Smiley to Justin Harris and two runs by Ganaway, one of three yards and one of five yards.

One positive for NorthWood is the fact that there are just 10 seniors on the squad. The vast majority of the Panthers key players will return next year from this season's 10-3 squad.

Fort Wayne Harding (10-3) will be at Andrean in the semistate Friday. [[In-content Ad]]