It’s one game into the 2025 season, and Harvey’s Shahn Alston is already breaking records.

The Red Raiders’ senior took the field with his team Aug. 22 against Berkshire and had his wires tuned to the end zone.

He recorded eight touchdowns, all on the ground, with 290 all-purpose yards and became the school’s all-time touchdown leader. His last capped a 57-41 victory

“We have dogs all around this team,” Alston said. “It’s going to be hard for teams to just key in on me because we have so many guys. A lot of different guys can score. We battled through adversity on to win this one.”

Harvey came out slinging, throwing on the first three plays with Markese Wise finding three different targets. The fourth play, he handed it off to Alston, who went five yards for the opening strike.

But Berkshire responded on its opening drive as Sam Barcikoski found Brady Wadsworth on a 20-yard strike to get in the red zone. Wadsworth had his number called again with a two-yard rush for the Badgers’ opening score.

The Red Raiders answered quickly, as on the first play of the next drive, Alston took the handoff for 75 yards and his second score of the game.

He had all five of the Red Raiders’ first-half scores, with runs of one, two and two yards. All of the short-yardage scores were set up by big plays prior in the drive.

He caught a pass from Wise for 43 yards on his third score, while Chris Burt and Armani Hall had double-digit yard gains on receptions for his fifth.

Coach Mick Mohner knows teams can’t key on just Alston getting looks as the pieces around him also bring strengths to the Red Raiders’ look.

“We put a lt on this senior class,” Mohner said. “We knew it was a big one coming in, and we asked these guys to sacrifice for one another and do whatever it took. These guys really do that. It starts up front with our line and Jake Boehm and Ethan Cruz. He was our tight end before we had a tackle go down, and he made the sacrifice for the team to play tackle for us.”

Berkshire was able to answer with some big plays of its own. Barcikoski recovered a high snap for a 32-yard gain, which was followed by a Sam Bable 28-yard gain and Barcikoski capped the drive with a two-yard score.

Two plays after the Badgers forced a punt, Barcikoski found Oliver Miller down the near sideline for a 52-yard touchdown pass.

The Badgers carried that momentum into the second half with Barcikoski finding Cam Beam for a 67-yard touchdown to open the second half and made it 35-28. The defense then had back-to-back interceptions by Miller and Dasen Marker, the former being a pick-six.

Mohner acknowledges while both sides of the ball showed promise, they still need to shore things up in the coming weeks.

“I think we were trying to get away from what we do and what we thought was going to win the ball game today,” Mohner said. “We were trying to force some things, a lot of self-inflicted wounds. We just had to get back to our downhill running game that we pride ourselves on to find a way to win.”

The Red Raiders had faith in Wise still, as the next drive Wise found Hall in double coverage for a 56-yard gain. Alston finished the drive with a 17-yard score.

His final two scores came from 18 and 11 yards out, as he finished with 290 all-purpose yards.

“We’ve really built that chemistry this offseason,” Alston said. “We preached time and again about not giving up and fighting through adversity. We fought back from 21 unanswered points, and we battled back. Wise came in at corner and got the pick to seal it.”

Barcikoski finished 12-for-23 with 222 yards and three touchdown passes, the last going to Luke Stute.

Harvey has its home opener Aug. 29 against North, while Berkshire hits the road to take on Hawken.

THE SCORE

Harvey 57, Berkshire 41

Originally Published: August 22, 2025 at 10:36 PM EDT