The Harrisburg Bulldogs picked up their third win of the year in the regular season finale on Friday, defeating Lewis & Clark Conference opponent Scotland County 32-14 at home.

The win improves Harrisburg’s record to 3-6 on the year and gives the Bulldogs an automatic berth in the Class 1 District 2 postseason tournament as the seventh seed. While Fayette and Russellville will battle it out on Friday for a tournament spot, the seven other district teams will have a bye week before the tournament begins on Friday, November 3.

First-year head coach Brennan Claas now gets two weeks off to prepare for the daunting task of facing second-seeded Crystal City on the road. The Hornets, 6-3 overall, are coming off a 6-0 loss at Herculaneum on Friday to close out the regular season.

Crystal City has allowed just 11.4 points per game this season, while scoring 25.2 a game. The Hornets boast a perfect 4-0 record at home.

“They have some speed,” Class said. “We will be playing on turf, so that will add to that. They’ve got a couple of big kids up front and a multitude of offensive formations. They look well-coached. It will be a big challenge.”

Claas said his players will be up for the challenge despite the seeding disparity. Maintaining a focus against a lauded opponent has not been a problem for the Bulldogs this year. 

“I think our kids have been really good all year about being focused on what we need to do to be successful,” said Claas.

Harrisburg also looks forward to resting a team that has dressed 17 or fewer players the last several weeks. Every team has its share of bumps and bruises after nine weeks of varsity football. 

“It’s nice for us, with our numbers, to have that time off and have a little extra time to dive in on a team we’re not familiar with,” Claas said. “We’re going to be spending the majority of this week like it’s the beginning of summer, honing on fundamentals. Our biggest thing is trying to get healthy and be as fresh as we can for this game.”

Harrisburg closed out the regular season with two home wins. On October 13, the Bulldogs topped Fayette 50-8. Friday’s 32-14 victory over Scotland County allowed Harrisburg to wrap up the home campaign with a tight win.

“I’d say it was actually closer than the score. They’re very well coached and very good in the front on both sides of the ball. Early on, they made some adjustments to our formation, and that gave us fits. They came out and gave us all we wanted,” Claas said.

Harrisburg lit up the scoreboard first with an eight-yard touchdown run from senior Hayven Samuels. A two-point conversion gave the Bulldogs an eight-point lead they would never relinquish. 

The Bulldogs later made it a two-touchdown game when Samuels hauled in a pass from junior quarterback Trace Combs. The conversion failed, but Harrisburg maintained a 14-0 lead.

After allowing a touchdown from the Tigers, Harrisburg found a way to strike again late in the second quarter. Combs ran the ball in on a quarterback keeper to put his team in the lead 20-7 at halftime.

The Bulldogs scored again early in the third quarter. Harrisburg kicked off to start the second half. But what was meant to be a squib kick was actually a little lighter than anticipated. It became more of an onside kick, which the Bulldogs recovered. From there, they went right down and scored a touchdown, capping the drive with a scoring run from rushing leader Caleb Sager.

Claas said that scoring right before halftime and then first thing in the third quarter allowed his players to relax a little bit.

Harrisburg has now scored first in the third quarter in all three of its wins this season. 

Sager later scored again on another short-yardage run to make the final score 32-14 in favor of the Bulldogs.

Sager finished the night with 103 yards rushing on 15 carries and two touchdowns. He also led the receiving game with four catches for 110 yards. 

Samuels picked up two touchdowns, one on the ground and one on a pass reception. He rushed 10 times for 29 yards and made two catches for 28 yards. 

Combs tossed one touchdown and scored on a keeper. The junior finished 14-for-22 for 226 yards with an interception.

Junior Bryce Ott finished with three catches for 27 yards. He also made a drive-stopping interception early to keep Scotland County off the board.

“He’s had a pretty good year at DB,” Class said. “Our big thing has been to negate big plays. Make them snap it over and over again. And when we didn’t, they scored.”

Now, with a week off, the Bulldogs can focus on the challenge of postseason play. 

“We can take one collective deep breath,” Claas said. “I’ve been telling them to live in the moment a lot this year. A lot of people look forward most of the time. This week will allow us to see where we’ve been and how much we’ve grown. We’ll take another week to get better and hopefully we’ll be able to continue our season.”

Friday’s game kicks off at 7 p.m. in Crystal City.