Harper 'D' tastes victory

There is nothing bland about the brand of defense Harper College is playing this season.

The Hawks have displayed a definite hunger to devour quarterbacks and running backs and deliver a steady diet of spicy blasts to wide receivers in an effort to turn opposing offenses to mush.

In Saturday afternoon's home opener in Palatine, the defense and special teams again played big roles as Harper improved to 2-0 overall and in the Midwest Football Conference East Division with a 34-14 victory over Grand Rapids (0-2, 0-1).

"From the get-go you established how we want the game to go," defensive coordinator Geoff Durian said in the postgame huddle after Harper allowed only 140 yards of total offense.

"We have a veteran group and I thought we'd do well this year," said sophomore defensive end and Driscoll graduate Kyle Jenkins. "We're not just trying to stop the offense, we're trying to score on defense."

For the second straight game sophomore safety Troy Jones returned an interception for a touchdown - this one 33 yards for a 12-0 lead 9:39 before halftime. Jones also finished the game with his third interception of the season and blocked a punt that gave Harper an odd 4-0 lead which head coach Dragan Teonic jokingly referred to as a grand slam.

"Jones is playing lights out for us," Jenkins said. "We've got so many weapons on defense."

The key is all but one of them are sophomores as Harper switched from a 3-4 to a 4-3 scheme this year.

"It's an unfair advantage," Teonic said of Harper's experience. "This is what you want in a (junior college) football program."

A sack by linebacker Ayodeji McCarthy set up the first safety on a bad punt snap. A tackle for loss by linebacker Michael Brown pinned Grand Rapids at its 1 to set up the blocked punt safety.

Linebacker Josh Fitzgerald had 2 sacks. The parade of stops behind the line included defensive ends Kevin Pacholski, Brad Knipfel and Devin Henderson, defensive tackle Nate McIntosh and linebacker Jason Mielzynski.

"We're stuffing the run a lot better," Jenkins said. "It seems like in every formation we know what we're doing and dominating out there."

The only big mistake on defense was a 43-yard touchdown pass 30 seconds before halftime to get Grand Rapids within 15-7. But Dello Davis raced 90 yards untouched with the ensuing kickoff.

And the offense got going after halftime as Garrett Barnas (16-for-22, 180 yards) hit Tafari Mahou for a 9-yard score and ran 19 yards for a 34-7 lead.

"We've got a shot at being good," Teonic said. "The kids need to keep working hard."