By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Osceola wraps up the regular season today at 7:30 p.m. with a trip to South Lake High for a non-district contest.

The Kowboys, 8-1 and 5-0, seek their seventh straight win as they build momentum for the first round of the regional playoffs Nov. 18 at Kowboys field.

Osceola, the 7A District 6 champion, will host Davenport Ridge Community, the 7A-5 runner-up to Lakeland, in the regional quarterfinal.

Stafon McCray (13-174, 4 TDs), Osceola County’s leading rusher, scored four touchdowns and Reggie Hall, Kieron Williams and Jacob Stepp all ran for one touchdown as Osceola clinched a perfect record in the district on Senior Night in a 58-7 win over Gateway.

Osceola rushed for 376 yards and totaled 412 yards as they blew open a close game with 30 unanswered points in the second quarter to build a 37-7 half time advantage.

Kicker Cristano Nogureras had eight PATs for the Kowboys.

“I knew going in that that was one of the better Gateway teams they’ve had there in a long time, and it was only 23-7 pretty late in the second quarter. They were getting the second half kickoff, so anything could have happened,” OHS Coach Doug Nichols said. “Fortunately, we were able to score a couple of quick ones and that pretty much put it away.”

South Lake, 4-5, will be a good test for the Kowboys, who are unbeaten since a 10-0 loss at Palm Bay Sept. 16, Nichols said

“They’ve got some good athletes there, a couple of players who should go D-1,” Nichols said. “They ran into some problems against Leesburg and lost a close one (38-36), and then they played East Ridge last Friday in their district, so it will be interesting to see how they react,” Nichols said.

The Kowboys coach said all his healthy starters will play. The Kowboys will go without safety Dominque Davis, who suffered a muscle pull last week. Defensive lineman Peter Bailey suffered a knee injury and his status for today’s game is unknown.

“We’ve got a good season going, so we’re not going to make any changes at this point,” Nichols said. “We’ll just keep going with what’s working.”

Osceola will make its fifth consecutive playoff appearance next week, the longest string of playoff appearances since Jim Scible led the Kowboys to the playoffs seven seasons in a row from 1997-2003.

St. Cloud will play at Lakeland Nov. 18. That winner will play the Osceola-Ridge winner in the semifinals.