With one second left, Shamane Jamison hauled in a Corey Moore pass for a touchdown. The score shocked Whitko as it broke a 15-15 tie and gave Harding the 23-15 win.

That happened last year in the sectional championship game.

Whitko and Harding meet again this year on Friday, but this is just for the right to play in the sectional championship, which would take place Nov. 8.

Whitko and Harding enter the game with identical 7-2 records. If the Wildcats win this game, they would play for their first sectional title since 1986.

Whitko looked impressive in a 43-6 first-round win over Blackford, rolling up 511 yards of offense. The Whitko starters rested most of the second half.

But that was 3-6 Blackford, and this is No. 6 (3A) Harding, a powerhouse that averages 42 points per game and gives up 11. Harding, led by talented backs Ivory Bryant and Alan Ganaway, quarterback Corey Moore, receiver Johnny Hill and tight end Justin Harris, averaged 454 yards per game this season. More than 340 came on the ground.

Harding is essentially the same team as last year. The five aforementioned players all started. Whitko had 18 seniors last year and has a lot of new faces this season.

Bryant and Ganaway have each rushed for more than 1,000 yards, and Moore has thrown for more than 1,000. Bryant is in the top 20 in the state with 1,472 yards on 158 carries.

That's 9.3 yards per carry. He almost guarantees a first down every time he runs the ball.

"Ivory is a great back," Harding coach Steve Cooley said. "He runs hard, takes care of the football, blocks and is a team player. He does everything we ask him to do."

These five players are the best five skilled position players that Whitko will have faced this season. Offensively and defensively, this is also the fastest team Whitko will have seen this season.

"You're looking at a team with a lot of talent," Whitko coach Bryan Sprunger said. "Look at their skilled positions all the way across. Throw in their right guard (Jamarkus Gorman) and right tackle (Paul Curl).

"Give coach Cooley a lot of credit. He went in there three years ago with a program that was in disarray and won one game. Now he has them contending."

Gorman is 6-4, 260, while Curl is 6-4, 240. The Harding backs like to run on the right side behind these two space-eaters, and understandably so.

Eight underclassmen start offensively and defensively for Harding, but most of them played last year against Whitko. Cooley has spent his week preparing his players for the misdirection plays Whitko will run at them.

"Whitko hides the ball well," he said. "They're great at execution. Anybody you play, you have to be able to control the running game. Against a team like this, when it's the main thing they like to do ... we can't give up the big play."

Sprunger said the exact same thing about Harding.

"We can't get in a track meet with them," he said. "You can't stop them, but you want to slow them down. We looked at their film against Mississinewa, and I'd guess they had eight to 10 runs of 20+ yards. So we have to slow them down.

"It's going to be an adjustment. As much as we'd like to try, you can't simulate that kind of speed in practice. It took us a couple of series last year to get adjust to them. When we did, I thought the kids played well."

Whitko's offensive line blew the Blackford defensive line off the ball last week, and the Wildcats rolled up 422 rushing yards. Sprunger doesn't expect that to happen this week.

"I'd guess maybe 10 times," Sprunger said. That's how many times he said his team could throw Friday night. Jimmy Linn has thrown more than 10 passes in a game once this season. He threw 11 in a 47-26 home loss to Oak Hill. "It depends on how many times they stuff us. To stand here and say we can pound them tackle to tackle like we did last week against Blackford, we probably can't do that."

Both of Harding's losses came to ranked teams. The Hawks lost to Fort Wayne Wayne 28-14 to open the season. Both were ranked No. 1 at the time, Wayne in 4A. Harding lost to Bishop Dwenger, also a top 10 3A team, 17-14 in week six.

"We've gotten better each week," Cooley said. "From the time we played Wayne to open the year to where we're at now. We've progressed, and that's important."

With more than 1,000 yards rushing and passing, Cooley is more than comfortable to rely on either option.

"If you can hand the ball off and win, you're going to hand the ball off and win," he said. "But there's times you can't do that, and you'll have to go to the air.

"Whatever it takes to win, we're going to do that."

Defensively, Whitko's linebackers and secondary impresses Cooley.

"Whitko does a nice job in their 4-4," he said. "Their linebackers are active. Their free safety (Tim Mason) makes plays all over the field. They gave us some problems last year."

Sprunger offered four keys that would keep Whitko in the game:

• Make the opponent one-dimensional. Get Harding in a position where you know whether the pass or the run is coming.

• Avoid turnovers. Period. The Wildcats have done that all season. Will it continue?

• Long offensive drives. Not only does he want Whitko to protect the ball, he wants the Wildcats to have possessions that run time off the clock. That way he keeps the Harding and its electrifying offense off the field.

• Score. Moving the ball up and down the field won't do the Wildcats any good if they can't score in the red zone.

Whitko enters healthy as can be expected. Starting halfback Bryan Rose had bronchitis and missed the Blackford game, but he is probable for this game.

On paper, Harding's offensive players would form a formidable fantasy all-star team.

Sprunger reminds everybody the game is played on the field, not on paper.

"I think that the kids who played last year proved to themselves that we can play with them," he said. "Everybody told the Air Force kids Notre Dame was going to kick their hind end." [[In-content Ad]]