By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer

Harmony and St. Cloud will play for the Brass Bugle on Friday at Harmony High. Edgewater and East River will be playing at the same time for the brass ring.

Because of the Longhorns' mistake-marred 34-7 loss to the second-year Falcons in Orlando Friday, both Harmony and St. Cloud are now eliminated from playoff contention. East River and Edgewater, a 61-0 winner over Poinciana on Friday, will battle for the District 4A-7 championship next week.

Harmony's offense was behind before freshman quarterback Alex Britton, playing in place of injured starter Adam Harvey, even took the field. East River's Michael Elder (18 carries, 134 yards, 2 TDs) went up the middle virtually untouched for a 70-yard touchdown on the game's first play.

Did HHS Coach Dayne Brown feel that one play set the tone for the entire night?

"Yeah," was all he could come up with after the game.

When East River (7-0, 4-0 in 4A-7) got the ball next, Harmony (4-4, 2-2) forced a fourth down, but the Falcons faked the punt and Arnold Lusby, before getting hit, unloaded a pass to Chris Streat that turned into a 37-yard touchdown play.

Harmony would never get fully on track the rest of the night. The Longhorns were 0-for-4 on fourth downs and  committed three turnovers. Two were inside the Falcons' 10-yard line, and the other was on the Longhorns' first drive of the second half. Down 20-0 and desperate to cut into the lead, East River's Nick Wright played a screen pass perfectly, intercepting it near midfield and taking it to the Longhorn 3. After a penalty, Elder scored from eight yards out to make it 27-0.

Daniel Foshee intercepted a fourth-quarter pass for Harmony, and Austin Ocasio scored on a 42-yard run with six minutes left. But, outside of that, tailbacks C.J. Clayton (20 carries, 90 yards) and Christian Acevedo (9-27 in his comeback from an injury sustained in the Osceola game) remained mostly bottled up. Britton was 3-of-9 passing for 51 yards and gained 22 yards on 10 carries.

The Longhorns actually outgained the Falcons, 265-230, but Brown said it was clear who the better team was Friday.

"We got our butts kicked, simple as that," he said. "They outplayed, outcoached and outhustled us in every facet. Injuries and youth cannot be an excuse. And we've got to rebound quick; next week is a very big game for us."