One step forward and two steps back.
It was the theme of Hart’s 38-32 loss to St. Bonaventure of Ventura on Friday night at College of the Canyons’ Cougar Stadium.
The Indians scored four touchdowns between the third and fourth quarters to bring a lopsided halftime deficit to just a touchdown.
Quarterback Nick Moore, who finished the game with 242 passing yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions, was responsible for three of those second-half touchdowns.
But Hart’s mistakes hurt.
Penalties and errors on both offense and defense kept the Indians from gaining ground. Seven penalties, which included two roughing the punter calls, cost them dearly.
“Second half we played horrible on defense,” said linebacker Charles Ike. “Pick it up. Do something stupid. Do something great. Roughing the punter really just messed us up and we did it twice. I don’t know.”
Special teams struggled throughout the night. A missed field goal and two missed extra points could have
given the Indians a much-needed boost.
“The whole thing was self-inflicted,” said Hart coach Mike Herrington. “We broke down in every phase of the game: offense defense, special teams. Our special teams were absolutely horrendous tonight.”
The first quarter was scoreless,
which gave way to a second quarter dominated by St. Bonaventure. The Seraphs scored 24 points, as compared to Hart’s six.
Defensively, however, the Indians were hanging on. In the first half, St. Bonaventure quarterback Mason Quandt was brought down three times, and the Hart defense recovered a fumble.
“The vibe (at halftime) was we can play with them, just stop making idiotic mistakes and we didn’t do that,” Ike said.
The Indians picked it up after halftime, but it wasn’t enough.
“It’s a little bright spot that we were able to come back only to lose by six when we were down by 18,” Herrington said. “So the guys didn’t give up. We just made too many bonehead plays.”
Two close losses in consecutive years only heats up the emotion between the Indians and the Seraphs.
“I want to beat them,” Ike said. “But I can’t play them next year.”
