By Ken Jackson
Staff Writer

A month ago, Harmony was 0-5 and anyone thinking the Longhorns were a potential playoff team might have been invited to take a Rorschach test.

But, strange as it sounds, the Longhorns can clinch their first football playoff berth in five years Friday at 7:30 p.m. by beating rival St. Cloud at Longhorn field in their eighth meeting of the Soldier City Classic.

Harmony made just enough big plays last week to defeat Gateway, 15-13, through the gusting wind and rain from Hurricane Sandy.

Quarterback Jeremiah Murray’s pair of fourth-down touchdown passes turned out to be just enough as Harmony kept its playoff hopes alive.

While Harmony (3-6, 2-2 in District 7A-6) managed just 76 yards on 41 rushes and 123 yards total, its defense kept Gateway’s (7-2, 3-1) run-based offense in check, allowing just 167 total yards.

“Offense and defense, we did what we needed to do when we needed it,” Horns Coach Jerrad Butler said. “My hat’s off to these kids who never stopped believing, on the practice field and these sidelines.”

Harmony will require help from Osceola, which plays at Gateway Friday, to earn a regional playoff berth. If Osceola and Harmony both win, the Longhorns will win a tiebreaker with the Panthers for second place. If Gateway beats Osceola, the Panthers are the district champs and Osceola is the runner-up.

Butler acknowledged that the stormy weather negated Gateway’s speed advantage.

“It must be Longhorn weather,” the soaked coach said after the game.

Friday, Harmony took the opening kickoff and methodically went 68 yards in 14 plays that took over half of the first quarter. On fourth-and-3 from the 28, Murray lofted a pass over a pair of Panther defenders into the arms of Preston Jones at the goal line. After an offside penalty on Gateway moved the conversion to the 1, Forrest Osborne powered in to give Harmony an 8-0 lead.

It took the Panthers and county rushing leader Zack Smith (163 yards, 2 TDs) four plays to answer, when the senior weaved 66 yards for a touchdown. Walter Marquez’s PAT made it 8-7, where it stayed through halftime.

Late in the third quarter, a Panthers’ pass into the wind, a steady 25 to 30 mph, ballooned and was picked off by Cody Toth-Allen and returned to the Gateway 8. On fourth down from the 13, Murray was flushed from the pocket and, under duress from three Panther defenders, desperately launched a pass into the back corner of the end zone that Tristan Reaves hauled in while getting a foot in bounds to give Harmony a 15-7 lead.

“I was committed to running it, but I wouldn’t have gotten in,” Murray said. “I saw Tristan at the last second and threw it and just hoped.”

Gateway’s Hunter Webber later intercepted at the Longhorn 46 to give the Panthers a scoring opportunity. Theo Belhomme went 20 yards on a reverse and Smith went the other 26 for a score. On the two-point conversion try, a pass deflected off two Panther receivers, leaving the score 15-13.

Harmony got the ball and killed the last eight minutes on the clock as Jones, Jose Aguilar and Alex Britton carried 13 times for 42 yards.

Harmony is 4-0 all time against Gateway. The Panthers could have clinched a first-ever playoff berth with a win.

“A lot of things didn’t go our way, and weather was one of them,” Panthers Coach Marlin Roberts said. “I don’t want to take away from their effort, but both TDs were by mistakes that we made. We tried to warn our kids that this was their Super Bowl.”

Butler said the Longhorns have done an excellent job of focusing on the task at hand over the last half of the season, as the team won three of four games.

“This group of guys is as resilient as any bunch I’ve coached. It’s probably one of my favorite teams because of that. No matter what, they just keep working through the adversity,” Butler said. “Chase Fields (63 tackles, two interceptions) is having a fantastic season for us. The kid has come along by leaps and bounds. He had never played a snap at linebacker before this year, and now he’s doing an amazing job for us. That’s the way it is with this entire group. That’s why I’m so proud of them.”

St. Cloud, 3-5 and 2-2, beat Celebration, 49-0, last week as Eric Pfeifer ran for 114 yards and two touchdowns and Travon Williams rushed for 101 yards and two TDs. It was St. Cloud’s second straight win in the district, but the Bulldogs can’t make their fourth playoff appearance in five years because they would lose the tiebreaker to GHS.

The Bulldogs have won the past four games of the Soldier City Classic and lead the series, 4-3.

“We have unfinished business this week,” Butler said. “But, we know it’s not going to be easy.”

Rick Pedone contributed to this story.