'Grit and toughness' lead Harrison to win over Hillgrove and No. 2 seed

Harrison lines up in victory formation against Hillgrove

"Just a lot of toughness and grit," Harrison Hoyas head football coach Luqman Salam said of what he saw from his team on Friday night as they held on to pick up a 30-23 win over the Hillgrove Hawks, helping them secure the number two seed in Georgia High School Association Class 6A Region 3 standings.

"We kind of live by a mantra that brothers are hard to beat and so a group of brothers came out here and fought tonight," Salam said of his team's efforts to pick up the victory over a Hillgrove team he also praised. "All credit to Coach [Justin] Deshon and his staff and his team. They have a heck of a program," Salam said of the Hawks and how tough they made Friday's region matchup. "We're just happy to get out of here with a win," Salam said.

And to Salam's point, the contest was a close affair throughout the night as neither team led by more than seven points, which the Hoyas did in the first quarter after scoring on their second possession courtesy of a Jermaine Hill rushing touchdown, and again early in the second quarter after responding with a rushing touchdown from quarterback, Aiden Watson following an 80-yard touchdown run by Hillgrove's Jaiden Moore which helped tie the game 7-7.

With Watson's first touchdown of the night helping Harrison take a 14-7 lead, Hillgrove would once again even the score as quarterback Donovan Mack would throw a touchdown pass to Grant Stang and after the Hoyas' attempt to regain the lead on a field would fail because of the attempt being blocked by the Hawks, Hillgrove would later connect on a Carter Genchis field goal to take their first lead of the night, going up 17-14.

In the third quarter a Harrison field goal would tie the game for the third time of the night as the score would be 17-17, but a big Harrison defensive stop which led to a fumble recover and touchdown would give the Hoyas a 23-17 lead as they fail to connect on the extra point attempt.

However in the fourth quarter, Hillgrove would tie the game for a fourth time as Moore rushed for his second touchdown of the night and as the Hawks missed on the extra point attempt, the score would be 23-23 with 3:36 to go in the game.

On the ensuing Harrison possession, the Hoyas would take the ball back down the field and cap a six play drive with Watson's second rushing touchdown of the night, as Harrison would take a 30-23 lead with 1:09 remaining in the game. On the kickoff, Salam and his staff would make a gutsy call and go for an onside kick, which would be successful as the Hoyas were able to recover and eventually run out the clock for the win.

"We were just thinking that we didn't want to kick it deep and give them a chance to get a big return, we'd rather have the ball there on the thirty so we were just trying to put the ball, really to where we were going to get it or it was going out of bounds is what we were trying to accomplish on that kick. It worked in our favor," Salam said of the decision for the onside kick.

Harrison will take on Paulding County next week before getting a week off to prepare for the start of the state championship tournament. Salam is in his second season as the Hoyas head coach.