Chase Adams returned a fourth quarter interception 88 yards for a touchdown and then made a game-saving play in the end zone to lead the Harmony Longhorns to a 13-12 win over the Palm Bay Pirates Friday.
He was not the only star of the game for the Longhorns, as kicker Alex Tuyo kept Harmony in it by booting 39 and 42-yard first-half field goals to forge a 6-6 tie at halftime.
“We made that one a little more exciting then we needed to,” Harmony coach Don Simon said. “Our defense played lights out tonight but we made way too many mistakes tonight. Although they also played a great game on defense, we had some opportunities to punch in some touchdowns that would have made the plays at the end of the game moot. Still, this is one of the grittiest games our team has played since I have been here. They kept their cool and made the plays that had to make to win the game.”
Harmony got off to a good start offensively, getting a 35-yard kickoff return from Cooper Richards and then driving down to the Pirate 13-yard line. But after a false start and two negative plays they had to settle for Tuyo’s first field goal to go up 3-0.
Conner Flaherty would then give the Longhorns possession on the plus side of the field with an interception, but five plays later Andrew Young stepped in front of an Ayden Parks' pass and returned it 65 yards for a touchdown and a 6-3 Palm Bay lead.
Tuyo tied the game on Harmony’s next possession to tie it at the half. The game remained tied until early in the fourth quarter. With Harmony driving for a go-ahead touchdown, a botched handoff between Parks and Jonathan Stout resulted in a fumble that was recovered by Palm Bay.
The Pirates drove field but on a third-and-11 play from the Harmony 27, Adams stepped in front of a Jayden Mobley pass and raced 88 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown and a 13-7 lead.
Harmony would then hold on downs and with under three minutes remaining in the game appeared to have the game won after Parks picked up a first down on a seven-yard run. But the play was negated by a holding penalty and the Palm Bay defense forced a 4th-and-6 at midfield. A bad snap from center that Tuyo had to field on two bounces resulted in a blocked punt and the Pirates took over over on the Harmony 27. One play later, Mobley hit Larry Johnson at the goal line and then scored on a keeper to cut the lead to 13-12 with 29 seconds remaining.
Going for the two-point conversion and the win, Mobley rolled to his right and tried to hit Johnson in the back of the end zone, but Adams drifted back and batted the ball down for the win.
“They had a lot of things going on with a wide receiver motioning to the left and the quarterback rolling to his right,” Adams said. “I thought we did a good job holding our ground and I saw the receiver settling in the back of the end zone. I was able to drift back and knock it down.”
Palm Bay was able to hold star running back Tyler Emans to 58 yards on 20 carries. They also forced three turnovers and also limited the Longhorns to 194 yards of total offense. But the Harmony defense was equally stout, forcing two turnovers of their own and limiting the Pirates to 111 yards of total offense – with the majority of those yards coming on Palm Bay’s final three possessions.
It was the third time in three years the Palm Bay-Harmony game went down to the wire. The Longhorns won 15-14 in 2020 and then last lost a 20-16 decision last year when they fumbled inside the Palm Bay five in the final seconds of the game. With the 13-12 win on Friday, just two points (46-44) have separated the two teams in three games.
The win pushed Harmony to 3-0 for the first time since 2015. The Longhorns have a bye this week before traveling to Eau Gallie (3-0) on Sept. 23 and facing Melbourne (2-1) at home in their district opener on Sept. 30.
“The bye is probably coming at a good time for us as it will give us some extra time to work out our mistakes we made tonight,” Simon said. “We have some good opponents coming up as we get into the meat of our schedule.”
