Playing With Emotion

Four of the bullets entered his right leg, two struck his left leg and one ripped through his chest.

Caught in the cross-fire of a gun battle between gang members at a party, Kevin Harris sustained injuries that prompted doctors to tell him he might never walk again.

Yet seven weeks later, Harris was back starring at middle linebacker for San Gabriel High in its final regular-season football game.

His injuries couldn’t stop him. And neither had the bullet that hurt Harris most -- the one that struck and killed Anna Vazquez, his girlfriend of nearly three years.

Friends and coaches worried that Vazquez’s death might crush Harris’ spirit. Instead, his emotional return became a rallying cry for a San Gabriel team that long had been a doormat in football.

San Gabriel won in Harris’ return, securing third place in the Almont League and earning an automatic berth in the Southern Section Division VII playoffs -- quite a feat for a team whose last four playoff appearances came in 1997, ‘87, ’85 and ’75.

The magic hasn’t stopped. In the 49 years since the school opened, San Gabriel had never won a football playoff game. This year, the Matadors have won three. Game 4 will be Friday night -- the Division VII title game against Covina South Hills at Covina District Stadium.

“It’s like a dream,” said Harris, a senior and team captain. “I feel like Anna is watching over us. It’s like I have a guardian angel.”

Harris and Vazquez were at a party in South Los Angeles when a fight broke out in the early morning hours of Sept. 29. Police said two alleged gang members drew guns and started shooting. Harris and Vazquez, neither of whom were connected to a gang according to police, were caught in the line of fire.

A few days later, teammate and best friend Andy Soto visited Harris in the hospital. Soto was also at the party. He was not shot but was badly shaken. Soto came to tell his best friend that he couldn’t continue playing football.

One of the bullets nearly pierced an artery in Harris’ leg. The one that entered his chest took pieces of his lung, colon, liver and diaphragm.

“He told me, ‘You have to keep playing,’ ” Soto said. “I told him I didn’t really feel like playing, but he said, ‘You have to keep the team going because I’m going to come back for the playoffs. You have to keep playing for Anna.’ ”

Harris and Soto are lifelong friends. When they were in fourth grade, they heard about CIF rings and promised one another they would win one together. Soto heard Harris might never walk again and he was well aware of San Gabriel’s lackluster football history, but he honored his friend’s request.

“To be honest, I really didn’t think he’d be playing again,” Soto said.

Soto promised Harris that in the next game, he would score four touchdowns. On Oct. 3, Soto wore Harris’ No. 5 jersey to honor his friend. In the first half, he scored three touchdowns, but on the third, near the end of the half, something popped in his knee.

Trainers worked on him at halftime and Soto said he could continue. Early in the third quarter, he ran in from two yards out to fulfill his promise.

Later, doctors said he had a tear in the knee and Soto missed the next four games.

“I had to score again,” Soto said. “I promised him I would score four.”

At the beginning of the season, the team had high hopes. There are seven seniors on the team that had started on varsity as sophomores. Three years ago, their freshman team was 8-1-1.

Coach Keith Jones started in 1998 and had his system in place with a group of players that had spent three years learning it. This San Gabriel team was primed to break the losing football tradition.

“We believed in this team,” Jones said. “There weren’t too many people who gave us a chance to win, but there sure are a lot of people excited about this.”

And surprised. San Gabriel’s last football championship was a league title in 1975. The Matadors lost 34 consecutive games from 1990 to ’93.

“Our reputation for so long was just ‘loser,’ ” said John Scanlan, San Gabriel’s athletic director. “That mind-set is there for so long and then suddenly this happens. Everyone is taken aback, but they’re loving it. Everybody is enjoying it, because they know what the tradition is.”

San Gabriel started the season with three lopsided victories, outscoring opponents, 140-52. In Week 4, the first game without Harris and played in memory of Vazquez, the Matadors routed El Monte Mountain View, 48-0.

But emotion only carried the team so far. Without Harris at linebacker, opponents discovered a hole in the San Gabriel defense. Quarterback Frankie Bernard and receivers Juan Magallon and Joseph Park took the passing game to new heights, but without Soto, defenses could key on them.

San Gabriel lost two of its first four league games.

With the league’s final playoff spot on the line, the regular-season finale against Alhambra was played Nov. 14. Harris, less than two months after being told he might not walk again, returned to give the team an inspirational spark. After allowing 47 points the week before, the defense shut down the Moors and San Gabriel won, 36-7.

“It’s one of the things we rallied around,” Jones said of Harris’ return. “He inspires us to play hard-nosed football. He is our defensive leader out there and we missed him.”

With Harris in the lineup, San Gabriel has allowed more than two touchdowns only once. In their three playoff games, the Matadors have won by scores of 44-10, 34-14 and, last week, 17-14 in a semifinal over top-seeded Santa Fe Springs Santa Fe.

Soto, who has rushed for 1,125 yards and 15 touchdowns in 129 carries, said seeing Harris on the field in uniform and making plays leaves the rest of the team little room for excuses.

“He’s like Superman,” Soto said. “He’s a miracle. He took seven shots and he still came back to play. It makes you want to play harder.”

Harris said he is 100% healthy. His weight, which had dropped from 215 to 170, is back to 205. He recalled the high hopes the team had at the start of the season but can’t believe it held together through all that has happened.

“It’s a surprise that we are playing in the finals,” Harris said. “We talked about going far, but hopes and dreams are one thing, actually being here is another -- especially with what this team has been through.”

Harris pays tribute to Vazquez every game by writing her name or putting a memento on his equipment. Even though Harris has returned, team members still wear black wristbands with his No. 5 written on them. During the heat of a game, the wristbands remind the players how far they’ve come and of the belief that their team is one of destiny.

“It has to be,” Soto said. “How else do you explain it? We never won a playoff game before, and now we’re in the finals.”

Harris knows exactly how to explain it. “That’s what I mean when I say I have a guardian angel,” he said.