Week 6- Erie McDowell (2-3) @ Warren G. Harding (2-2)

While a midseason bye week is quite unusual for Warren G. Harding’s football program, it gave them a chance to gather themselves as they prepare for a highly-competitive slate of games to close the 2025 regular season. While there are a few plays from the first few games that they’d love to have back, the Raiders are now beginning to find out what works for them.

Warren G. Harding senior linebacker Tyler Smith (#3) swarms into St. Vincent-St. Mary's offensive backfield and records a tackle for a loss on 09/12/2025.

One of the major weapons that has begun to emerge for Harding is senior Khi Blutcher, who now has five catches for 144 yards (28.8 yards per catch) and three touchdowns with all of those scores coming over the last five quarters of play alone.  Classmate Julius Ferrell has been “Mr. Reliable” as a possession receiver as he’s hauled in 11 catches for 130 yards and two touchdowns. 

Harding senior Amiere Cobb finds classmate Khi Blutcher on a 33-yard touchdown pass against St. Vincent-St. Mary on 09/12/2025.

For the season, quarterbacks James Jones and Amiere Cobb have combined for 379 passing yards, the aforementioned five touchdowns, and just two interceptions.  Cobb has also proven to be a threat with his legs as he has 87 rushing yards and a score on just six carries.  Speaking of the ground attack, sophomore Makhai Brogdon was solid in the first start of his career against St. Vincent-St. Mary as he rushed for 135 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries while freshman Satavian Hill added 10 carries for 33 yards and one touchdown. 

Harding sophomore Makhai Brogdon breaks loose for a 54-yard touchdown run against St. Vincent-St. Mary on 09/12/2025.

The Raiders’ youth is also showing up on the defensive side of the ball as sophomore Asa Burch recently became the first Harding athlete to return two interceptions for touchdowns since then-junior Rob Massucci accomplished the feat way back in 2001.  Senior Matt Richardson also has two interceptions on the season while Hill, Blutcher, Johnny Williamson, and Zer’ion Redding have also snatched the football out of the air on defense. 

Harding sophomore Asa Burch returns his second interception of the season against St. Vincent-St. Mary on 09/12/2025.

Meanwhile, Erie McDowell’s record is very deceiving as the first three weeks of their season were filled with matchups against some of the better programs in Northeastern Ohio in Medina Highland (49-10 loss), Mentor (42-12 loss), and Chardon (26-9 loss).  However, the last couple weeks have illustrated how much those hard lessons early on are starting to pay off as the Trojans have outscored their opposition 102-54.  After dismantling archrival Erie 37-7, they won an intense shootout over Meadville by the final score of 65-47.

Erie McDowell is armed with a powerful offensive line. Here, senior center Rowan Szuba (#69) pancakes a Chardon defensive tackle on 09/05/2025.

The victory over Meadville was a direct result of a huge performance by senior tailback Brody Bronsell as he rewrote McDowell’s record book with 381 rushing yards and seven touchdowns.  Not only did that break a 21-year old record set by former Trojan Justin Hammond (350 rushing yards against Pittsburgh Brashear in 2004), those numbers alone eclipsed his junior year production of 242 rushing yards and four scores from 2024. 

McDowell senior tailback Brody Bonsell zigzags his way to a 93-yard touchdown run against Meadville on 09/19/2025.

The Trojans’ passing attack will be led by versatile sophomore quarterback Deonte Flemings.  In the blowout victory over Erie, he opened up the game with a touchdown run of his own before throwing a 36-yard scoring pass to Kameron Bastow, who also was solid in the loss to Mentor as he hauled in 6 catches for 57 yards.  In the season opener against Highland, Owen Haffey had a solid outing as he reeled in four catches for 63 yards.

McDowell quarterback Deonte Flemings finds Kameron Bastow for a 36-yard touchdown pass against archrival Erie on 09/12/2025.