-
Champs again: Harmony took the first OBC Championship of the spring sports season on Thursday night with a 19-12 flag football win over St. Cloud. It was Harmony’s fourth straight flag title and 10th in the last 13 years. PHOTO/J. DANIEL PEARSON
Martha “Smalls” Edwards fired three touchdown passes and Kaia Allen made a huge defensive play at the goal line as the Harmony Longhorns won their fourth consecutive Orange Belt Conference Flag Football title with a thrilling 19-12 win over St. Cloud Thursday at Osceola High School.
“We were a little out of synch in the first half,” Edwards said. “But then we started to get into a rhythm. Our defense made it easier on us by giving us great field position in the second half.”
On the Longhorns’ third possession, Edwards found Ashlyn Scarborough over the middle for 39-yard touchdown pass. Kinzie James tacked on the extra point and the Longhorns led 7-0 after one quarter.
St. Cloud used a little razzle-dazzle to answer on its first possession of the second quarter. Quarterback Kaisley Carswell threw a backwards pass to Vanessa Vohs, who went over top to Danigzy Mantilla for a 26-yard touchdown that cut the gap to 7-6, which would be the halftime score.
James set up Harmony’s second score midway through the third period, intercepting Carswell and returning it to the Bulldog 18. Three plays later, Edwards hit James from three yards out and the Longhorns pushed the lead to 13-6.
The Longhorns defense forced a punt to start the fourth quarter and Edwards needed just five plays to make it 19-6, covering the last 10-yards on another touchdown pass to James.
Still, there was a lot of fight left in the Bulldogs. Carswell directed an 11-play, 65-yard scoring drive – capped off with a four-yard pass to Mantilla to pull St. Cloud back to within seven at 19-12.
Carswell completed eight passes on the drive, including the final six in a row. Although the drive burned all but the final two minutes off the clock, the flag football on-sides kick rule would give St. Cloud life. Following a touchdown in the fourth quarter, the scoring team has the option to run one play. If they gain 20 yards on the play, it is considered a successful on-sides kick and they retain possession of the ball. Carswell competed the pass to Priscilla Rodriquez, which gave St. Cloud a first down from its own 30.
After picking up a couple of first downs, Carswell was hurt on a fourth-and-10 play while catching a throw-back pass from Vohs and stretching for a first down. Although the play came up short, Harmony was penalized for roughing – giving St. Cloud a first down on the Harmony 10 with 12 seconds remaining.
Vohs went in at quarterback and after throwing an incompletion, hit Savannah Kroener three yards from the goal line, but Allen pulled her flag before she could cross it to end the game and preserve the win.
“Our plan was to get eight or 10 yards and get out of bounds to set up one final play from close range,” St. Cloud coach Shawn Beck said. “But they made a play in bounds and time ran out. In hindsight, we should have done a better job with our tempo and use of timeouts on that final drive.”
It was the second straight game where Harmony had to make a defensive stop near the goal line on the final play of the game to secure victory. Tuesday, the Longhorns needed a defensive gem from James, as she pulled a flag at the 1-yard line to preserve Harmony’s 7-6 semifinal win over Celebration.
James continued her big-time play on Thursday. In addition to catching three passes for 24 yards and two touchdowns, she had an interception, a pass defense and intercepted a ball on a point-after conversion. Harmony had three interceptions in the game to go with four pass breakups and two sacks.
“Without question our defense was the big key tonight,” Harmony coach Paul Strauch said. “We gave up that one touchdown drive, which you can’t criticize as St. Cloud just marched the ball down the field. But the double pass that went for a score and then allowing them to complete a 20-yard pass to retain possession after that score should have never happened and my coaches and I have to take the blame for that. Still, with the game on the line, we made the plays we had to make on defense to win.”
In capturing their 10th OBC title in the last 13 years, the Longhorns move to 5-1 on the season. Edwards completed 14 of 19 passes for 114 yards and three scores.
Carswell finished the game 24 of 44 for 162 yards, one score and three interceptions. Mantilla had seven receptions for 80 yards and two scores for St. Cloud, who fell to 5-2.
“This one will sting for a little bit because it’s one we really wanted,” Beck added. “I was really proud of the effort and tenacity we displayed tonight. It’s a tough setback, but we have a lot of football to play and hopefully we’ll see them again in the district tournament.”
OTHER PLACEMENT GAMES:
3rd place: Celebration 37-0 over Osceola
5th Place: Gateway 26-0 over Liberty
7th place: Poinciana 26-0 over Tohopekaliga
