Heading into Friday night, Poinciana had exactly one football win against Longhorns in school history and that came in 2004 – the year Harmony opened. That’s changed in a big way as the Eagles pushed their season record to 2-0 with a convincing 26-5 win over Longhorns (0-2).
“We knew we had to get after them and execute, and fortunately we were able to do that. Harmony is always a really tough team, and we felt we had to match their intensity and be physical with them up front,” first-year coach Taron Mallard said.
The game started with both teams making multiple mistakes. Harmony took the opening kickoff but an errant snap out of shotgun formation on the game’s first play sailed over quarterback Landon Hayes head, resulting in a 15-yard loss, two plays later, Hayes threw a pick. But Poinciana went backwards on its first three plays and a shanked punt set Harmony up on the Eagles 37. Another errant snap lost 17 and after a sack Brayden Buehler missed on a 52-yard field goal attempt.
The two Harmony series would be a window into what would happen to the Longhorns for the rest of the game. In 13 total possessions, Harmony had an average starting position of the 50, including four starting points inside the Eagles 30. But of those, they only managed three offensive points that came on Buehler’s 43-yard field goal.
Another kicking game mistake on a punt by the Eagles led to a safety and Harmony led 5-0 after one period. It would be the last lead the Longhorns would see. After the Buehler field goal, Poinciana needed four plays to take the lead for good.
Quarterback Cameron Brown hit Javonte Simpson-Lee on a 43-yard pass and two plays later connected with him again from 27 yards out and Poinciana took a 6-5 lead. Harmony put together two good drives after the score, but they both ended on Eagle interceptions by Wil Nezius and Ja’Lobe Hines. After the Hines interception, Brown hit Ernest Nunn on a 53-yard scoring pass and followed it with a conversion run to make it 14-5.
Perhaps the key play of the game came as time was expiring in the first half. Harmony drove down to the goal line, where they faced second down with seven seconds left. Hayes was hit at the line on a sneak but while officials were trying to spot the ball time expired without a timeout being called.
Midway through the third period, Poinciana put the game away with an impressive 13-play, 80-yard drive that Nezius capped off with a 5-yard scoring run as Eagles pushed in front 20-5.
Still the Longhorns had one last chance to get back in the game. Chase Adams returned the ensuing kickoff 64 yards to set up Harmony in the red zone again, but the Eagles defense held again – stopping the Longhorns on both third-and-1 and fourth-and-1.
Ernest Nunn capped the scoring two series later by picking off Hayes and returning it 38 yards for a score.
Brown finished the game 7-of-19 passing for 218 yards and two touchdowns. Simpson-Lee had four of those catches for 124 yards. Poinciana’s running attack was non-existent in the first half but opened up in second, finishing with 87 yards on 27 carries.
Hayes finished 10-of-28 for 102 yards but was picked off four times. Led by Chase Adams (46 yards), Harmony rushed for 101 yards not counting three sacks and the two errant snap attempts that lost 55 total yards.
With the win, the Eagles now move on to play St. Cloud (2-0), who routed Pine Ridge on the road, 49-14. It will be a matchup of two of the county’s three remaining unbeatens.
“Personally I don’t know much about them other than they have been a really good football team the last couple of years. We’ll hopefully get the film tomorrow and start getting ready for them,” Mallard said. “It will be another opportunity to play a great team.”
Lippert said his team will go back to the drawing board, hitting the road to play Sebastian River next Friday.
“Nothing they did really surprised us tonight, we had our chances to put points on the board and we simply didn’t execute. Give Poinciana credit, they have good athletes and they made plays tonight and Brown is an absolute beast,” Lippert said. “As for us, we need to refocus. I told our kids, all our goals are still obtainable. Our entire district schedule is in front of us.”
