BENTON — It was the kind of mud that’ll suck a man’s shoe off.

Thick and goopy, it obliterated field markings, turned Porters Chapel’s gleaming all-white road uniforms into a nasty-looking brownish-gray, and made talented athletes tiptoe around the field.

With one scintillating run, Austin Barber made a mockery of it all.

PCA’s senior tailback broke through the line on the second play of the fourth quarter, put one subtle move on a linebacker, and went 72 yards for the tiebreaking touchdown, leading the Eagles to a 20-6 win over Benton Academy Friday.

The win clinched second place in District 5-A for PCA, and a playoff spot for the fourth straight season.

PCA will play Heidelberg — a team it beat earlier this season — in the first round on Nov. 9. Since both teams finished second in their respective districts, a coin flip will determine the home team.

“This is a great win on the road for us. We’ve really established our program as a playoff contender every year,” said PCA coach Randy Wright, who guided the Eagles back to the postseason after losing 20 starters from a year ago. “Everything we’ve done the last four years speaks for itself. To go four straight years to the playoffs, that speaks volumes.”

The road to the postseason wasn’t an easy one for PCA. It started the year 1-2, missed a chance to clinch a playoff spot last week against Central Hinds, then got off to a bad start against Benton.

Barber fumbled on PCA’s first play, and the Raiders cashed it in. After an offsides call on fourth down kept the drive alive, Benton quarterback Thomas Shipp scored on a 1-yard sneak for a 6-0 lead.

The Raiders returned the favor in the second quarter, though, when Jordan Davis got too close to a punt and let it bounce off his leg. PCA recovered at the Benton 20, and Barber ran in on the next play to tie the game at 6.

And there it stayed.

Neither team was able to get anything going, and the mud created by a week’s worth of rain didn’t help matters. The teams combined for 12 fumbles — seven of them on the center-quarterback exchange — and PCA only had two first downs through the first three quarters.

In the fourth, things got even worse for Benton.

Facing a fourth-and-9 at the PCA 28 as the quarter opened, the Raiders went for it. A screen pass was set up nicely, but dropped, and it started a catastrophic chain of events for Benton.

Barber broke off his 72-yard touchdown run on the next play, and Benton’s next two drives ended with interceptions in PCA territory. The Raiders got the ball back inside their own 10 with 1:57 to play, but three passes fell incomplete and the fourth was picked off at the 12 by Jeremy Roach.

Roach bobbled the ball, but was able to gather it in and return it for the game-clinching touchdown with 1:32 remaining. A bobbled snap led to a 2-point conversion pass from Colby Rushing to Reed Gordon to make it 20-6.

“I saw him roll out. We worked on that all week,” Roach said of his interception.