The Harrisburg Bulldogs will return to the district championship game for the second year in a row after handling former Lewis & Clark Conference rival Marceline 44-14 on the road Friday.

Friday’s title game against No. 4 Salisbury will mark the first time in school history that the Bulldogs have made back-to-back championship appearances. However, a district crown continues to elude Harrisburg, now in its 12th varsity season. Once again, the Bulldogs have put together a postseason run after a mediocre regular season. Harrisburg entered districts 4-5 overall, with enough points to earn a bye week amid the five-team field. The Bulldogs won their first two games and their last two games of the regular season, not letting a string of five straight losses throughout the middle of the schedule define them. Injuries piled up during that losing stretch, resulting in personnel changes at key skill positions, including quarterback, running back, and wide receiver.

Harrisburg coach Brennan Claas, now in his third year as a head coach, said playing for a district title was an early objective of his. “That was a goal with the returners we had back. Try to give it another run. When the bracket came out, we had the bye. That obviously helps you and gets you one step closer.”

That rough patch in the middle of the season almost derailed Harrisburg’s chances. But Claas said that once the calendar turns to November, his players get a little more excited for football. “I don’t know if it’s the cold air or getting dark at practice. It’s kind of like the same story last year. It’s like we flip a different switch. The way it’s set up, you have to be playing your best at the end. And we played our best game all year at Marceline.”

After trading punts to start the district semifinal at Marceline, Harrisburg lit up the scoreboard with 2:06 left in the first quarter on a nine-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Rylee Robinson to senior tight end Victor Shouse. The two-point conversion gave the Bulldogs an early 8-0 lead.

The Bulldogs had an encouraging night from senior running back Caleb Nichols, who had been hobbled with an ankle injury over the last few weeks. He returned to peak form just in time on Friday, rushing for 144 yards on 18 carries and scored Harrisburg’s second touchdown of the night early in the second quarter. The one-yard scoring run gave his team a two-touchdown lead with 9:02 left in the first half.

Coach Claas said heading in, he was unsure how Friday’s game would shape up. “When you look at records, they are a lot like us. It was kind of hard to tell how good they are.”

Marceline kept the game close with a 41-yard scoring run with 5:42 left in the second quarter. But the point-after attempt failed, keeping the Bulldogs ahead by eight, 14-6.

Harrisburg answered two minutes later with a 64-yard pass from Robinson to Nichols. The two-point conversion gave the Bulldogs a 20-6 lead at the mid-game break.

“At halftime, they only had two plays that we considered explosive, and one of them was in a formation we’d never seen. The other was a double-screen trick play,” Claas explained. “I thought we played tremendously well. It was the group I’d hoped to see a lot sooner. I thought sophomores stepped up and looked like juniors. Everyone got their hand in it, scoring-wise. It was a great team effort, and our defense was phenomenal. Our mindset was there. It looked like the team I thought we could be all year.”

Harrisburg set the tone in the second half. First, the Bulldogs recovered an onside kickoff to start the third quarter. Less than 40 seconds later, they were in the endzone again, this time with a 12-yard scoring run by Robinson. The two-point conversion gave Harrisburg a commanding 28-6 lead less than a minute into the second half.

The Harrisburg defense then made two defensive stops, maintaining the three-touchdown margin. The Bulldogs nearly put the game away midway through an action-packed third quarter when Nichols intercepted a Marceline pass and ran it back for a touchdown. Following the two-point conversion, the Bulldogs led 36-6.

But Marceline, true to form, refused to lie down. The Tigers marched down the field on their next possession, eventually scoring on a two-yard run. The two-point conversion was good, making the score 36-14 with 4:07 left.

“When they scored in the third quarter, the vibe of the game was not great,” Claas said, acknowledging a momentum change. “Our body language did not look great. I had a gut feeling that we needed to get something right then.”

After stalling on offense, the Harrisburg defense gave the Bulldogs just the shot in the arm they needed. With Marceline threatening to score from the Harrisburg 2-yard line on fourth down to start the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs made a huge defensive stand, forcing the Tigers to turn the ball over on downs inside the Harrisburg 5-yard line.

From there, the Bulldogs worked the clock, methodically inching the ball down the field over eight minutes on 13 plays. Finally, with 3:49 left in the game, Robinson iced the win with a three-yard pass to sophomore running back Hunter Winscott in the endzone. The conversion gave the Bulldogs a 44-14 lead.

“I thought, let’s get down the field and put this thing away. And our kids played really well,” Claas said. “It was our typical four-minute offense. We were just trying to slow it down. Our kids did a great job of executing. It would’ve been very easy to lose focus.”

The win gives Harrisburg its third postseason victory in the last two seasons and sets up what could be a competitive championship game at Salisbury on Friday. Claas and his team are under no illusions about the quality of their opponent. The Panthers blanked Harrisburg 36-0 in Week 4 of the regular season, knocking sophomore Kadyn Weldon out of the quarterback spot with an injured hand. Robinson has taken the Bulldogs’ snaps ever since.

“We know that we did not play anywhere near our best against Salisbury the first time,” Claas said. “We have to limit their explosive plays. They’re fast, and they have great runners, and they really put you in a bind. If you don’t have enough in the box, they hand off to [senior running back Brayden] White, and if you load the box, they’re going to let their quarterback chuck it around the yard. They’ve got a good balance to them. They have tremendous athletes.”

The Panthers have blown out their opponents all season long and improved to a perfect 10-0 record with a 58-8 win over Fayette in the semifinals last Friday.

Claas said all of his players are healthy and will be suited up and ready when the teams clash in Salisbury on Friday night. The kickoff is set for 7 p.m. The winner will advance to the Class 1 state quarterfinals on Friday, Nov. 22.