Prep Football: Harrisburg wins dog fight
Halloween came a week early for the Harrisburg football team.
As Bulldog head coach described them - Jekyll and Hyde - Harrisburg rallied from a 23-14 deficit to come back and beat Carbondale 27-23 in the regular season finale at Frank Blyer Field.
"This is the way we have played all year," Way said. "We are such a Jekyll and Hyde football team. We come out and they have the ball almost the entire first quarter and immediately we are down 9-0 and have to dig ourselves out of a hole. Even late in the game when we are getting ready to score, we fumble the center snap. We constantly put ourselves in a hole.
"The one thing I will have to say about these guys is we have done this so many times this year and they never quit, no matter how bad things are or what's going against us, they never quit and we have won three or four football games like this."
The second half rally was inspired by a halftime speech where Way preached the importance of not beating themselves.
Carbondale had seven first half fumbles, none of which were recovered by the Bulldogs defense and the Terriers had six penalties for 30 yards as they built a 9-0 first quarter lead and tacked on another score in the second quarter.
Harrisburg's fortunes changed in the second half, picking off two interceptions, recovering a fumble and finally stopping a Carbondale ground game that scored on five of its six possessions in the first half.
"Cody Rightnowar gave them fits tonight at nose guard for us," Way said. "You saw how many times they fumbled the center snap. You have to give him a lot of credit and we played the entire second half with none of our starting backs. Our fullback and halfback were out and Aaron Stephens didn't even play in the second half. Our entire backfield was gone, so we won that game with backups."
Matt Upchurch, one of the backups, had a breakout night where the 6-foot, 190-pound junior had 19 carries for 95 yards and a third quarter touchdown run from four yards out that pulled Harrisburg to within two, 23-21 with 3:39 to play.
The winning drive however was highlighted by a 28-yard completion from Noah Vallette to Jake McGowan on 3rd and 11 from the 44 that set up Jordan Bartok's two-yard plunge with 7:22 to play, sealing the deal for the 'Dogs.
"Our kids stepped up," Way said. "When you're playing without your starting backfield and we put Lucian (Hicks) in the backfield as a blocker and he just did a heck of a job blocking. Upchurch, for a guy that hasn't gotten a lot of playing time, he stepped up. (Blake) Drue, who hadn't carried the ball almost all year and he comes in and runs and blocks his butt off. (Jordan) Gould and (Austin) Hefner came into the secondary and played great. We put Josh (Craig) in at linebacker and he played great. We put Peyton (Jackson) in at linebacker and he had a couple of sacks. It's a total team effort and I told them after the game that because they went 2-7 last year and then go to 7-2 this year is a real compliment to them as players and a football team."
Harrisburg will now wait for the IHSA playoff pairings Saturday night, where the Bulldogs are expected to be seeded in Class 4A, but for now, Way is just content with Friday night's win.
"We told the kids all week, I'm not even worried about the playoffs. This was our big game right here. We didn't want to end with a loss when things have been going so well for us. We got that seventh win and now we sit back and see who we get and maybe get a couple of our kids back that were beat up and hopefully come in and play a decent game in the playoffs."
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.