HARRISON, Ohio — Harrison survived the tightest finish of the night in Division II, Region 8 on Friday, November 6, edging visiting Talawanda 22-21 in an Ohio High School Athletic Association regional quarterfinal. The No. 2 seed Wildcats trailed in a game the Cincinnati Enquirer described as a comeback win, and they held on by a single point to keep their season alive in front of their home crowd in Hamilton County.
The comeback ran through quarterback Brady Lawhon. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Week 12 roundup of top performers, Lawhon completed 11 of 17 passes for 143 yards and a touchdown and added 39 rushing yards and two more touchdowns. In all, Lawhon accounted for every Harrison touchdown on the night, producing 182 yards of total offense in the one-point win.
That balance mattered in a game with no margin for error. Talawanda, the No. 7 seed from Oxford, scored 21 points and pushed the higher seed to the final whistle, but Harrison’s 22 points — built entirely on Lawhon’s three scores — were just enough. The final score was confirmed in the statewide scoreboards published by the Columbus Dispatch and the Mansfield News Journal as well as the Enquirer’s Cincinnati scoreboard.
Friday’s meeting was the second of the season between the Southwest Ohio Conference rivals, and Harrison won both. The Enquirer reported in its playoff preview that Harrison beat Talawanda 20-7 at home on October 9 on its way to a 3-0 finish and the final Southwest Ohio Conference title, with the Wildcats rushing for 266 yards in that first meeting. The rematch was far closer, but the result at Bill Kuntz Field was the same.
Talawanda did not arrive quietly. The Brave reached the quarterfinal after a 35-34 first-round win over La Salle and carried a 9-2 record into Friday night, according to the OHSAA’s published quarterfinal pairings. The loss ends Talawanda’s season at 9-3.
For Harrison, Friday was its playoff opener. The Wildcats earned a first-round bye as the region’s No. 2 seed after an 8-2 regular season, according to the OHSAA, and a bye week can cut either way in November. Harrison started slowly enough to need a comeback, but it finished the night 9-2 overall, with two wins over Talawanda at home this season.
Elsewhere in Region 8, top seed Anderson routed Withrow 58-28, No. 3 Trotwood-Madison defeated Edgewood 39-14, and No. 5 Troy won at No. 4 Lima Senior 27-26, according to the Dispatch and Mansfield News Journal scoreboards. Harrison’s one-point escape was the closest of the region’s four quarterfinals.
What happens next is a home game Harrison has been building toward all season. The Wildcats will host No. 3 Trotwood-Madison on Friday, November 13, in a Division II, Region 8 semifinal, a matchup listed in the Enquirer’s projected Week 13 schedule and on Trotwood-Madison’s MaxPreps schedule. The winner advances to the Region 8 final on November 20, one win from the state semifinals.