By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer

The first-round FHSAA regional playoff games are scheduled for Nov. 19.

But, if the Harmony Longhorns are planning to line up that night, then they will have already won a couple of must-win, playoff-like games.

The first one’s on Friday. The one after that – against rival St. Cloud – will feel like a big game anyway.

Thanks to a 28-14 loss to 4A District 7 leader Edgewater (4-3, 3-0) last week, Harmony (4-3, 2-1) now must win at East River (6-0, 3-0) Friday at 7:30 p.m. and defeat St. Cloud Nov. 5 to claim the district runner-up spot and the regional playoff berth that goes with it.

There is a scenario in which East River, St. Cloud and the Longhorns could play in tiebreaker for the spot on Nov. 8, but Longhorns Coach Dayne Brown would prefer the more direct path.

“Our destiny is in our hands, but the only way to give ourselves a chance to be where we want to be is to win this week,” he said.

Three huge mistakes last week — a muffed punt, the failure to break up a long Edgewater touchdown pass, and the inability to recover an  onside kick — cost the Longhorns a chance to sit in driver’s seat for the 4A-7 title.

Trailing 7-0 last week, the Longhorns tied it with 3:22 left in the first half when Adam Harvey connected over the middle with Forrest Osborne for a 35-yard touchdown pass. Chris Spanglo’s PAT made it 7-7. But the Eagles answered by scoring three touchdowns in the next five minutes of clock time to effectively put the game away.

J.B. Woodman and Raymond Rowe hooked up on touchdown passes of 84 and 7 yards in the second quarter. Then, after Harmony couldn’t follow the bouncing ball on an onside kick attempt to start the second half, Edgewater went 50 yards in four plays, scoring in just two minutes when Woodman scored from 16 yards out on a rollout.

Harvey pulled Harmony within two touchdowns with a 4-yard TD run on the first play of the fourth quarter, but Edgewater kept the ball and worked the clock to seal the deal.

“We had our chances that we didn’t take advantage of,” Brown said. “A couple plays go different and it’s anybody’s ball game. Some of our guys played well but not enough of them stepped up to the challenge of a big game like that.”

To make matters worse, Harvey was injured delivering a pass in the fourth quarter and was replaced by freshman Alex Britton. Harvey left with a neck stinger and has been checked for a possible concussion.

“He’s day-to-day,” Brown said Tuesday. “We’ll evaluate him and make a decision later this week. I was impressed with what Alex showed us and we’ll see what we do if he’s in there this week.”

With change-of-pace back Christian Acevedo on the sidelines with a shoulder injury and guard Carson Sherrod going out in the third quarter with a knee injury, leading rusher C.J. Clayton (16 carries, 53 yards) was held in check.

Alex Githens led the defense with 15 tackles and tops the county with 105 stops. He and Trent Fields also intercepted Woodman, and Austin Ocasio and Anthony Trujillo sacked him.

East River is the big surprise in 4A-7; the second-year school was 1-9 a year ago in its first season.

The Falcons run a split-back offense behind a group of junior pillar linemen: Adam Duckett (6-9, 360), Micah Cross (6-1, 285) and Ivan Rios (6-5, 285).

Quarterback Josh Jones (6-6, 170) leads the offense. Josh Holoman (91 carries, 443 yards, 5 TDs) is the feature back.

“They do a good job at what they do with that size up front,” Brown said. “They can throw it but they want to pound it. That’s what I’d do if I had that. On defense we’ve got to close gaps, come off blocks and just play sound defense. This is our ultimate gut-check time.”

East River High is located off of East State Road 50 about eight miles east of UCF.