Harmony scored three touchdowns in the final 3:45 of the first half Friday and cruised to a 33-6 win over Liberty in the Orange Belt Conference flag football championship game.
The Longhorns (9-2) defended their OBC title, won last year in round-robin play and this year in the first playing of the OBC tournament.
In the third-place game Friday, St. Cloud took down Celebration, 26-13 in a matchup of speedy, athletic teams.
Harmony trailed the Chargers (7-3) after LHS ran in a score to make it 6-0, but then the Longhorns' athletic playmakers took over. A 30-yard pass from Martha Edwards to Ella Husbands set up a short scoring pass to Alex Ceballos; Drea Thompson scored the extra point to make it 7-6.
The Longhorns spent the rest of the game building the lead. Thompson gave Harmony the ball back with an interception on Liberty's next drive, and it turned into points when Edwards and Husbands hooked up on another scoring pass a minute before halftime. But the Longhorns would quickly get the ball back on downs, and when Edwards hit Thompson with 10 seconds left before halftime, Harmony suddenly had a 21-6 lead. Liberty didn't threaten in the second half, when Edwards ran for a pair of touchdowns on short runs.
"Liberty came out with a good game plan, to shorten the game as much as they could. We only ran four plays in the first quarter," Harmony Coach Paul Strauch said. "Winning this tournament should mentally prepare us for the district tournament. These are teams we should be playing during the season."
Harmony reached the OBC final with a 40-0 win over Tohopekaliga on Monday and an epic 7-0 semifinal win over St. Cloud; Kinzie James caught the game's only score with 20 seconds left.
"It was a battle and our defense held tough," Strauch said.
Liberty, in the mix for the OBC title for the first time, defeated Gateway, 19-12 and Celebration, 13-6, to get there.
