Amid the chaos of fights, flashing police lights, tasers and players bolting the field and racing up the grassy hillside away from their fans returned the normalcy of Jahmani Muhammad putting the Harlem Huskies on his back.
Muhammad, soon to become the NIC-10’s all-time leading rusher, scored all three touchdowns to give Harlem a 20-6 lead over Auburn in a game that was suspended Friday after a fight behind the grandstands. The game is scheduled to be resumed 4:30 p.m. Saturday with 4 minutes remaining in the third quarter. Parents will be the only spectators allowed.
“It was a good game — and it’s not over yet,” Auburn coach Leroy McFadden said. “We still have time to do it. We’re still fighting. I will get my boys going. But those guys are good.”
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Especially Muhammad.
The 5-7, 165-pound senior shared the spotlight with Matt Swanson and Dwayne Broom last week, as all three had big games in a 300-yard rushing effort by Harlem against Belvidere. But Muhammad had 18 of Harlem’s 28 rushes Friday and his 107 yards were all but one of the team’s rushing total.
He also had a knack of making the difficult look easy at crucial times. Most crucial of all came with Harlem leading 7-6 and facing fourth-and-goal from the 3 after Auburn had held the Huskies to five yards on the previous three plays.
Harlem coach Jim Morrow called for a fake up the middle and a pitch wide right to Muhammad. The pitch looked a little too wide, but Muhammad calmly speared it with one hand and outraced the defense to the pylon to put Harlem up 13-6.
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“We knew we had to get it outside their stand-up defensive ends,” Morrow said. “We had an emphasis to really get that pitch out there and let him go get it and he was able to secure it and turn the corner. It was a big play.
“Not too many people can do that. He’s got that extra gear than can put him on the perimeter quickly. We dialed that one up and he was there.”
Muhammad also ran around right end for a 29-yard touchdown to open the scoring. Auburn closed to within 7-6 on a 3-yard run by quarterback Xzavier Lindhe. After Muhammad’s fourth-down run made it 13-6 at the half, Muhammad scored on a 20-yard run midway through the third quarter.
Matt Trowbridge is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at mtrowbridge@rrstar.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @MattTrowbridge.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Amid chaos of unruly crowd, Jahmani Muhammad keeps Harlem moving on the ground
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