Not since 2007 has the Harmony High School Longhorns Varsity Football team been able to claim the Class 7A, District 5 Title, but when time ran out on the game clock Friday night at Lake Nona School, Coach Don Simon’s Longhorns had done exactly as he told they needed to do if they were going claim that title, they needed to beat Lake Nona High School and the final score for the evening was in Harmony’s favor…  41-12!

Harmony came into the game 6-1 overall and 4-0 in district play, while Nona was 5-1 overall and 3-0 in district play. The Longhorns knew they had to control Nona QB Michael Kern, who had thrown for almost 2000 yards already in the season and had committed to play at Wake Forest.

Coach Simon’s team didn’t just control Kern, they shut him down for four quarters of play, and that included 6 interceptions… 2 that turned into touchdowns.

Harmony won the toss and chose to receive. Nona offered little resistance to the Longhorn offense early on as they marched down the field easily, but after a fumble, Nona took over possession and crowd watched to see how Harmony’s defense would perform on the biggest game of the year (The visiting stands were filled with Longhorns fans to support their team).

Nona’s Moises Aracena split the Longhorn defense and ran 85 yards for a TD…. but the point after attempt failed.

A few minutes further into play Harmony Longhorn Reece Allison’s  38 field goal attempt was good that’s how the first quarter ended.

The 2nd quarter is where the Longhorns domination of the Lake Nona Lions began. The Longhorns picked off Kern twice grabbing  6 points off the second by Ahmeen Dinzey who ran it in 10 yards for a TD. Harmony QB Herstich ran for a 3-yard score then connected with Elijah Fernandez on a 32-yard touchdown pass and the teams went into halftime with the Longhorns leading 24-6.

Lake Nona’s Makai Burris had 80 yard pass TD from Michael Kern with a failed 2 point conversion attempt, but that would be all the points that Michael Kern could muster with his Lions’ offense for the evening.

#13 Ryan Carroll had two big interceptions on the night, the second he ran 60 yards for a TD with eight seconds left in the game, which was the catalyst for Head Coach Don Simon to receive a blast of cold water from the water cooler over his head by players  in celebration of the win.

The Longhorns will finish out the regular season against Celebration Friday night at home for homecoming and then travel to Satellite. After clenching their Class 7-A Title they will be seeing action in November and will have home field advantage.