Senior quarterback Sabby Meassick fired four first-half touchdown passes – three to Xaevez Brown – as the Tohopekaliga Tigers defeated Harmony, 28-16, on Thursday night in a District 7A-10 game.
Brown had 197 combined rushing and receiving yards and Tayshaun Dillard had seven catches for 87 yards.
After Harmony took an early lead, Meassick caught fire, throwing for 353 yards. He lead the Tigers (3-2, 1-0) 95 yards on their second drive Tigers capped with a 34-yard scoring pass to Brown to knot the game at 7-7.
Harmony (3-3, 0-1) responded by going 55 yards on five plays with Damarion Moore scoring his second touchdown of the game from six yards out to give the Longhorns a 13-6 lead.
But Meassick responded again, going 7-for-9 on a drive that covered 64 yards. Tre Punter made a diving catch in the end zone from five yards out for the score. A quick turnover set Tohopekaliga up at midfield and Meassick added his third touchdown of the half on a nifty 12-yard screen pass over the middle to Brown.
Down eight with six minutes to go in the half and the Longhorns scheduled to receive the second half kickoff, Harmony remained in striking distance. But after driving the ball inside the Tohopekaliga 30, quarterback Landon Hayes mishandled a snap, recovered, but then was hit while trying to pitch to Moore. The ball bounded away and was recovered by the Tigers. On the very next play, Brown raced by the Harmony secondary and caught a pass from Meassick in stride for a 63-yard touchdown.
After recovering an onsides kick attempt, Harmony was able to get to the redzone thanks to a 40-yard pass from Hayes to Bryce Berry, but the drive stalled and the Horns’ had to settle for a Brayden Buehler 25-yard field goal, making it a 12-point game at the half, 28-16.
Meassick, was 20-for-30 for 315 yards in the first half and appeared headed for a record-breaking night. But the Tigers committed to the ground game to dictate the pace and the clock. Brown carried 14 times for 74 yards and Gavin Aponte added four carries for 50 yards as Tiger backs went over 130 yards rushing for a second straight game.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say that we went to the run by design, we sometimes will run a superfast offense and sometimes a super slow controlled offense. We like to take what is given to us and the running game was there for us in the second half,” THS coach Anthony Paradiso said.
And while Harmony moved the ball on the ground in the first half with 111 yards, the ground game took a serious hit early in the third quarter when Moore left the game with a leg injury.
Still Harmony had its opportunities to get back in the game in the second half. Early in the third quarter they forced and recovered a fumble deep in Toho territory at the 14. But one play later, they fumbled it right back to the Tigers.
On its next possession, Hayes threw a couple inches high to Berry – who was running unmarked down the center of the field for what would have been a potential 87-yard touchdown pass. It was one of several near misses on the night between the two.
Harmony had one last chance to climb back in the game when it sacked Meassick on fourth down. Taking over at midfield, Hayes was able to complete a pass for 31 yards to Berry but Tohopekaliga’s defense sacked him five times on the series to end the threat.
“We opened the game with that big drive and score and were able to move the ball well in the first half, but at the end of the day those turnovers hurt, as did losing Damarion to injury,” Harmony coach Don Simon said. “Although we held them scoreless in the second half, you have to give them credit, they ran the ball well and kept it away from us.”
Tohopekaliga (3-2, 1-0 District) will play undefeated Lake Brantley (4-0) next week in a non-district game.
“We were down a lot of kids tonight and were coming off a tough loss. We had three starters out but we were able to come in and execute our game plan. So I was super proud of our effort tonight, Paradiso said.
Harmony hits their bye week before returning to action with another district game at Lake Nona on Oct. 10.
“Our message to the team was simple, we have four more games and a lot to play for,” Simon added.
