About the only thing that could stop Harmony's flag football squad Tuesday night was the weather.
Freshman quarterback Martha Edwards completed 21 of 27 pass for 204 yards and four touchdowns as the Longhorns all but clinched the Orange Belt Conference flag championship with a 26-0 win over St. Cloud Tuesday. The game was stopped with six minutes to go in the fourth quarter with Harmony knocking on the door of another score.
“Sort of speechless right now,” Longhorns Coach Paul Strauch said. “At the best, I really felt this was going to be a one-score game at the half and then a shootout in the second half. St. Cloud has a really good team but I think we were able to set the tone for the game when we scored on our first possession and then got that immediate interception and another score. When we went up two scores early, I think it gave us a lot of confidence and we just started making plays on both offense and defense.”
Harmony took control their first possession, as Edwards found Ashlyn Scarborough from 15 yards out for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead. Two plays later Aubrie White picked off Vanessa Vohs inside the 20, and two more plays later it was 13-0 on Edwards’ touchdown pass to Kinzie James.
The Longhorns tacked on two more scores in the second period, with Edwards tossing touchdown passes of 10 and eight yards to Scarborough and Moreno to make it 26-0 at the half.
About the only mistake the Longhorns made came during the third quarter when Morgan Beaulieu intercepted Edwards in the end zone. Harmony made up for it by picking off three passes themselves.
Edwards spread the ball to seven difference receivers. Scarborough had four catches for 44 yards and two scores, Moreno had five catches for 36 and a score, and James had two for 50 yards. James had two of Harmony’s three interceptions.
The victory moved Harmony to 8-1 in the season and a perfect 7-0 in Orange Belt Conference play. St. Cloud fell to 4-3 overall and 4-1 in OBC play. The Longhorns can clinch the outright OBC title and a perfect conference record with a win against Poinciana (4-1, 3-1) on Thursday.
“The main thing is we cannot take Eagles lightly,” Strauch said. “They gave St. Cloud a good game and they only have one loss this season.” Although his Lady Bulldogs were on the verge of winning the OBC title, he cautioned that fully expected to see St. Cloud again in the district playoffs. “Last year, it was sort of the same script as this year, we went undefeated in OBC play, including beating St. Cloud in the regular season, but they turned around and beat us the district playoffs.”
The Longhorns will conclude the regular season with four non-district games against teams with winning records – including Wekiva (8-2), Windermere (5-2) and Lakewood Ranch (6-3), a team that beat the Longhorns last season. St. Cloud had six regular season games left, including two OBC games with Tohopekliga on Thursday and a regular season-ending game with Celebration on April 14.
Speaking of the Storm (3-2), it claimed a 20-14 victory Tuesday over Gateway (5-4) for the purple's third win in four games. Celebration goes to winless Osceola on Thursday, while the Panthers look to rebound at home Thursday against Avon Park.
