Games moved up due to Hurricane Helene threat
Note: Weather from Hurricane Helene may impact these games. Go to AroundOsceola.com or @OsceolaSports on Twitter/X for updates.
By any measuring stick used, it was not a great weekend for Osceola County as seven of its eight football teams lost Friday. Although two of them went down in overtime, only Liberty (2-3) came away with a win— beating Freedom, 16-0.
Still, those losses do not hinder the playoff implications for the five county teams (Osceola, St. Cloud, Tohopekaliga, Harmony and Celebration) who open district play this week. The goal for each is simple—win a district title and automatically earn a spot in the regional playoffs.
St. Cloud, Tohopekaliga and Harmony share District 7A-10 with Lake Nona and all four play this week. Harmony is at Tohopekaliga tonight and Lake Nona is scheduled to host St. Cloud on Friday. (again, check with us online for any storm-related rescheduling).
Both Tohopekaliga (2-2) and Harmony (1-4) come off lopsided losses, as the Tigers dropped a 48-8 road decision to Viera and the Longhorns fell at Lake Howell, 40-18.
It is set up as a great battle of Harmony’s defense against Tohopekaliga’s explosive passing game. One of Harmony’s two wins last year came against Tohopekaliga, where they held the Tigers to just two touchdowns in a 23-14 win. Harmony also won the only other game in what is becoming a rivalry—taking a 40-7 win in 2022.
“We’re going to try to make their quarterback (junior Sabby Meassick) and receivers uncomfortable,” said Longhorns Coach Nick Lippert, who was the defensive coordinator on the 2022 team that bottled up the high-powered, pass-happy Tigers offense.
Earlier in the year, St. Cloud head coach Mike Short said he felt the district was extremely balanced and “any one of the four teams is capable of winning it.”
The Bulldogs are coming off a tough 31-28 overtime loss to rugged Merritt Island, where quarterback Logan King (466 passing yards) and WR Alex Springs (10 catches, 177 yards) both had huge games. Short believes that same effort will be needed against Lake Nona (2-2), who is coming off an impressive 34-13 win over Olympia.
“You can tell by looking at film that they are really well-coached. They are equally good at running and throwing the ball, so they will be handful for our defense.”
Osceola, which fell to 3-2 last week with a heart-breaking 34-28 overtime loss to Jones, probably has the easiest path to regionals. They are in a small three-team district and open up on Friday night at home against Melbourne (3-2).
Led by Kymarion Johnson (347 yards), the Bulldogs are run-first team that averages more than 174 yards per game. But the Kowboys front seven is stout. Only Jones (85 yards) has had any success running against Osceola this year; four other opponents have averaged less than 32 yards per game. One thing Kowboys coach Eric Pinellas is not concerned about is any sort of “hangover” from the Jones loss.
“The bottom line is we lost in overtime to one of the best teams in the state, which I think shows we can play with anyone,” the fourth-year coach said. “Our team has a lot of pride in the school and themselves, and I have absolutely zero concern these guys are going to come out flat next week. It’s a district game and I know we will be focused and ready to go.”
Celebration (1-3) continues its rebuild under Chris Blanton and could just as easily be 3-1 this season with close losses to Space Coast and Winter Springs. Although they are in the same district as state power Dr. Phillips (4-0), the Storm will have a chance to get off to a good start in district when they play East Ridge in Clermont Friday night.
With Poinciana on a bye week, the other two independent teams in the county square off with Gateway (2-3) hosting Liberty (2-3) Wednesday. In the last two seasons, Gateway (2-17) and Liberty (2-18) have both struggled and the winner of this game will have more wins this year than in the previous two combined. After winning their previous two games by shutout, Gateway lost a tough 14-7 game to Winter Springs last Friday.
“Defensively, we played good enough to win, but we simply could not get anything going on offense,” veteran Gateway coach Marlin Roberts said. “We were driving for a potential tying or game-winning score at the end of the game and were intercepted. We’re playing a lot of freshman and sophomores and they keep getting better.”
Coming off their shutout win against Freedom, second-year Chargers coach Dee Hart says the Gateway game will be a good challenge for his young team.
“Last week we won all three phases of the game and we are definitely going to need a similar effort against the Panthers,” Hart said. “Marlin is a tremendous football coach and they are a lot like us, they have some really good young players they are developing. We need to execute our offense and we need to get them on the ground on defense.”
