SHARON -Turnovers are a backbreaker for any team.

Warren learned that lesson the hard way, coughing the ball up four times in a 40-17 region loss to Sharon Friday night at Sharon Tiger Stadium.

All of Warren’s turnovers came in the second half, and three led to Sharon touchdowns.

“That’s been the difference all season,” said Dragons coach Greg Latimer. “If you don’t execute and continue to turn the ball over, you won’t win. If you take off the 21 points that came off our turnovers it’s a new ball game.”

“The toughest part is that this is a great bunch of kids. We’ll keep coaching them.”

With D.J. Fehlman, Kyle Kulka, and Evan Suppa back in the lineup after missing time for injuries, the Dragons opened the first half ready to take it to the host Tigers.

Sharon threatened at the Warren five yard line before the Dragons took advantage of an illegal procedure penalty and a sack by Devin Nowacki to push the Tigers back to the 30. A deep pass from Andrew Tomko was broken up by Ryan Shattuck on the next play to force a turnover on downs.

Warren then strung together a long drive capped with a one-yard touchdown run by Solomon Gross. Shattuck nailed the extra point to make it a 7-0 lead.

It looked as if that lead would hold into the half when Sharon’s next drive stalled. A quick three-and-out forced Warren to punt, however, and the momentum began to swing the Tigers’ way.

Ziyon Strickland returned the punt to the Warren 36, where a run play was stopped at the line of scrimmage to keep the clock ticking. Tomko got his team to the line to spike the ball with .08 seconds left in the half, and found Strickland on a hail mary pass on the next play to cut Warren’s lead to one after the missed extra point.

Sharon came out of the locker room reenergized, scoring on their first two offensive possessions.

Da’mon Rudolph broke off a 73-yard run from scrimmage and Tomko found A’Royal Ali for a 21-yard touchdown pass less than a minute later.

Down but not out, the Dragons made it a one-score game on a 26-yard field goal by Shattuck set up by long runs from Kulka and Gross as well as a pass from Fehlman to Nowacki.

Any hopes of a comeback were quickly shut down by Tomko.

The junior quarterback connected with Strickland again – this time from 16 yards out – and kept it himself for a rushing touchdown to make it 32-10 Tigers.

Solomon Gross answered with his second score of the night but it was too little too late, as a Fehlman pass was picked off by Evan Hawkins and returned 84 yards for the final points of the game.

Gross finished the night with 68 yards on 18 carries and a pair of touchdowns while Kulka had 111 yards on 16 touches. Shattuck caught six passes for 58 yards in addition to a field goal and two extra points.

The Dragons (1-4, 1-3 in region) return to action against Slippery Rock for homecoming next week at War Memorial Field. Slippery Rock took sole possession of first place in Region 3 with a 14-7 win over Hickory on Friday.

Warren-Sharon Stats

Warren0737-17

Sharon061222-40

Second Quarter

W Solomon Gross 1 run (Ryan Shattuck kick), 2:01

S Ziyon Strickland 36 pass from Andrew Tomko (kick fails), 0:00

Third Quarter

S-Ea’Mon Rudolph 73 run, 8:26 (pass fails)

S-A’Royal Ali 21 pass from Tomko, 7:58 (run fails)

W-Shattuck 26 field goal, :27

Fourth Quarter

S-Strickland 16 pass from Tomko, 10:14 (kick blocked)

S-Tomo 6 run, 8:06 (Zach Meszaros run)

W-Gross 6 run, 6:08 (Shattuck kick)

S-Evan Hawkins 84 INT return, :25 (Rudolph run)

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WS

First downs1611

Total Yards293343

Rushes-yards39-17025-167

Passing123176

Comp-Att-Int13-28-211-22-0

Fumbles-Lost2-22-1

Penalties-Yards5-3013-90

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INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING-W-D.J. Fehlman 5-(-9), Gross 18-68 2 TD, Kyle Kulka 16-111; S-Strickland 2-8, Rudolph 9-116 1 TD, Jeremiah Norris 11-42, Tomko 3-1 1 TD.

PASSING-W-Fehlman 13-of-28 for 123 yards, 2 INT; S-Tomko 11-of-22 for 176 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT.

RECEIVING-W-Shattuck 6-58, Evan Suppa 3-17, Devin Nowacki 3-41, Kulka 1-7; S-Norris 2-3, Meszaros 2-13, Ali 4-99 1 TD, Strickland 2-52 2 TD, Carmen Schuville 1-9.