With family members taking pictures of St. Cloud players standing next to the Brass Bugle Trophy, Bulldogs coach Mike Short stood by with a huge grin on his face.
“I’m not sure whether it’s the ugliest pretty trophy or the prettiest ugly trophy, I’m just glad it’s going back home to St. Cloud High,” Short said after his team registered a dominating 21-0 win over arch-rival Harmony in the 19th edition of the Soldier City Classic.
After last year’s shutout loss to the Longhorns, the win gave St. Cloud a 10-9 series lead. The Bulldogs have won four of the last five in the series.
The game did not start out well for either team, as both offenses struggled in the first half. But it was the St. Cloud defense that provided a huge spark for the Dogs. Three times in the first half, the Longhorns had the ball either inside the red zone or close to it but came away empty after missing two field goals and losing the ball on a costly fumble inside the 15-yard line.
It was another defensive play that gave St. Cloud a 7-0 lead late in the second quarter. After the Bulldogs pinned Harmony back on its own 20 following a 51-yard punt by Adrian Gonzalez with less than a minute to go before halftime, the Bulldogs defense forced a fumble and one play later Logan King hit Alex Springs for a touchdown.
“That one is on me, we weren’t moving the ball and I just wanted to run out the clock, we should have just took a knee,” Harmony coach Nick Lippert said.
The big sequence not only gave St. Cloud a 7-0 lead at intermission, but also provided momentum it carried into the second half. The Bulldogs quickly forced a three-and-out on Harmony’s opening drive in the third quarter and then proceeded to go on 10-play, 60-yard touchdown drive that was capped on a TJ Griffin 5-yard TD run. St. Cloud uncharacteristically ran the ball on every play of the drive as Griffin gained 39 yards on nine carries and Conner Owen ripped off a 22-yard run on flanker reverse.
Harmony had a chance to get back in the game midway through the third quarter when Ivaniel Ramos blocked a punt and the Longhorns took over on the St. Cloud 23. But two runs and a pass play netted just one yard and a fourth down pass fell incomplete as the St. Cloud defense held again.
Following that series, the teams traded interceptions, and St. Cloud took over again at midfield. From there, senior running back Jonathan Morales took over, ripping off runs of 17, 8, 12 and 12 yards before eventually scoring on 5-yard run to make it 21-0.
Led by Morales (73 yards) and Griffin (74), St. Cloud rushed for 194 yards.
“Our running game took over in the second half and that was certainly a deciding factor in the game,” Short said. “It was a combination of several things, including the unfortunate fact that they lost several defenders in the game to injury. But we also realized their defense was getting tired from the amount of time they were on the field, so we also went up-tempo to take advantage of it.”
Lippert pretty much agreed with Short’s assessment. “We didn’t take advantage of early opportunities, we couldn’t get our offense going, we lost three of our better defenders to injury and simply made too many mistakes overall. But hats off to St. Cloud though, from what I’ve seen that’s the best their defense has played all year.”
That defense limited Harmony to just 113 yards of total offense, recording three sacks and forcing three turnovers.
With the win, the Bulldogs finish the regular season at 7-3 and Athletics Director Bryan Smart was trying to arrange a Bowl game that would be played Wednesday night on St. Cloud’s new field against either am opponent to be named.
“We were going to play a bowl game last year and had to cancel for several reasons,” Short said. “We’re 90% sure we will be able to put a game together for Wednesday and our kids certainly earned an opportunity to play in one.”
Harmony finishes its season at 2-8.
“It was a tough loss but I was proud of how hard we played all night,” Lippert added. “I thought we played well enough on defense to win. After the game, I just told our guys to hold their heads up and I loved them. This game was not an ending but just a beginning. Our seniors will go on to bigger and better things and our underclassmen will learn and build on this season.”
SOLDIER CITY CLASSIC RESULTS
2005 Harmony, 17-14
2006 Harmony, 68-7
2007 Harmony, 49-0
2008 St. Cloud, 17-14
2009 St. Cloud, 28-21
2010 St. Cloud, 28-7
2011 St. Cloud, 46-6
2012 Harmony, 26-20
2013 Harmony, 12-7
2014 Harmony, 14-2
2015 St. Cloud, 57-13
2016 St. Cloud, 39-8
2017 Harmony, 35-33
2018 Harmony, 56-9
2019 St. Cloud, 48-7
2020 St. Cloud, 21-17
2021 St. Cloud, 31-30
2022 Harmony 44-0
2023 St. Cloud, 21-0 (St. Cloud leads series 10-9)
