C.J. Simms and Judah Knight each scored touchdowns in the final four minutes to lead the Viera Hawks to a 39-31 come-from-behind road win over the Harmony Longhorns on Friday night.
The loss dropped the Longhorns to 3-2 overall and, most importantly, behind the 8-ball in District 7A-7. The Hawks improved to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in district play.
“That was a pretty good football game between two pretty good teams,” Harmony Coach Don Simon said. “In the end, they made a few more plays that we did. The important thing here is we still have a lot to play for. Because Viera has such a high RPI, our ranking could actually improve despite the loss. We need to get ready for next week (at Liberty) and play every game one at time from this point forward because the playoffs are certainly still obtainable.”
Both teams put on an offensive show in the first half.
Viera took a 6-0 lead on their first possession on a 10-yard reverse run by Cohen Graham-Johnson. Knight set up the touchdown taking a Simms screen pass, breaking a tackle at the line and running 64 yards down to the Harmony 10.
Harmony would come right back as Tyler Emans returned the ensuing kickoff 60 yards to the Viera 30. Eight plays later, Cooper Richards scored from the 2 to make it a 7-6 game. Quarterback Ayden Parks kept the drive going with a QB sneak on 4th-and-2.
The teams would then trade touchdowns. Simms capped an 80-yard drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Donovan Giles before Emans broke loose on a 65-yard touchdown run to tie it at 14-14.
With Viera leading 17-14, Emans would break free on a a 74-yard touchdown run to give Harmony a 21-17 lead. The Longhorns got the ball back at midfield with 5:30 remaining, and Kevin Lavigne booted a 47-yard field goal as time expired to give the Longhorns a 24-17 lead headed into halftime.
Harmony extended the lead to 31-17 in the third quarter. After a defensive stand, Viera muffed a punt snap and the Longhorns blocked the punt and recovered on the Viera 2-yard line. Emans would needed just one carry to score his third touchdown of the game.
From there, Viera made the big plays to tilt the tide of the game. The Hawks made it 31-24 when Donovan Giles sped past the Harmony defense and caught a perfect pass in stride from Simms for an 85-yard touchdown.
A Harmony fumble on the next possession set Viera up on the Longhorn 40. Seven plays later Simms would score on a 3-yard keeper on fourth down to cut the lead to 31-30. On the extra point, the snap got away from the holder, but Perdomo picked up the loose ball and beat the Longhorns defense to the pylon for the two-point conversion and a 32-31 lead.
“That play (Giles' TD) was a killer for us,” Simon said. “We come up with a stop and block a punt for a two-touchdown lead and on the very next play they torch us for a long touchdown.”
Harmony would drive to midfield with five minutes left, and facing a fourth and three from the 50, the Longhorns elected to punt, and after a block in the back followed by a false start, Viera was pinned on its 5-yard line. But Simms hit Giles on a slant and after broken tackle he picked up 58 yards on the play. Three plays later Knight scored to make it 39-31 with 2:56 remaining.
“At first we lined up to try to draw them off-sides but it didn’t work,” Simon said. “We called time and were deciding whether to go for it but then we decided to punt and hopefully pin them deep and get the ball back.”
Needed an answering score just to tie, Harmony would pick up one first down but faced with a fourth and 15, Parks was forced out of the pocket and a last-ditch pass fell incomplete.
Emans tallied 231 yards on 18 carries, but only 52 of those came in the second half.
“At the half, they basically started bunching up nine guys within four yards of the line of scrimmage and took the inside run away,” Simon said. “When we tried to run outside, their linebackers did a fantastic job of flowing to the ball and stopping those runs.”
Simms finished the game 22 of 28 for 368 yards and four total touchdowns, including three by air. Viera had 17 plays that went for 10 or more yards.
“We knew they were a big play offense,” Simon added. “We got some stops but we needed a few more. We didn’t do a great job getting them on the ground after some passes and those plays really hurt us in the end.”
