It was a win that coach Bryan Clouse felt was "needed" — and for good reason. The Raiders stacked a gantlet of a schedule in the first few weeks of the season. That included St. Xavier out of Louisville, Kentucky, who Clouse said could be argued as the best team in the entire country, as well as No. 2-ranked Hamilton Southeastern in Indiana.
A record of 1-2-3 was disappointing on the surface for the heading into Tuesday's matchup, but it wasn't without facing about as tough of competition as it could find.
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While the Bronchos couldn't gain any offensive momentum against Harrison, they played stout defense throughout the second half. The Raiders had 26 shots overall and 12 shots on goal by the end of the game, but only two made it past Gomez. The junior made plays all throughout the box, including diving leaps and booting shot attempts down the field. But without garnering any offensive momentum against the Harrison defense, Jeff was unable to put a dent into the lead in the second half, marking its fifth consecutive loss. "A lot of credit goes to (Gomez)," Clouse said. "We kept him awfully busy tonight and he did a solid job. Superb effort by that young man. " Looking at the rest of the schedule, the brunt of the Raiders postseason testing is over. But regardless of what competition they might face, the second half of the season demands improvement for Harrison to be where it wants to be next month. For now, it'll bring some confidence back to the Raiders as the regular season keeps rolling. "It's a step in the right direction for us," Clouse said. "Our objective is to get to October and be peaking. We got to be better in the attacking third, bottom line. " Chase Gemes covers high school sports and Purdue women's basketball for the Journal & Courier. He can be reached at cgemes@usatodayco.com. This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier:
