Kowboys escape, 29-28

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Kowboys escape, 29-28

Sports

Thursday, 29 November 2012 08:39

Defense holds on last play vs. Bolts

By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor
Though some Osceola fans still may be processing what happened in the final frantic seconds of last week’s 29-28 regional semifinal victory against Davenport Ridge Community, there is no question about what’s coming up.

Osceola, 12-0, will host Lithia Newsome, 8-4, Friday at 7:30 p.m. for the Class 7A-2 regional championship at Kowboys field.
It will be a surprise if Friday’s game has a more dramatic ending than the one last week, when Osceola’s defense stopped Ridge Community running back E’Shawn Davis inches short of the goal line on a 2-point conversion attempt with no time left to preserve the victory.
Although OHS led most of the way, the Bolts (9-3) repeatedly fought back despite turning the ball over three times and after trailing by scores of 15-7, 22-15 and 29-22.
The Kowboys thought they clinched the victory with 15 seconds left when quarterback Daequan Harrison hit running back Davante Small on a 15-yard TD pass play and Cristano Nogureas added the PAT to make it 29-22.
Harrison took the Kowboys 79 yards in less than two minutes, scrambling for key gains on runs of 10 and 6 yards for first downs to keep the drive moving.
But, Ridge Community quarterback Shykeem Pitts (6-11-146, 2 TDs), playing his last game for the Bolts, electrified the Bolts fans and stunned Osceola’s with a 65-yard touchdown pass to receiver Jamari Butler on the last play of regulation.
A facemask penalty on the play against Osceola moved the ball to the 2-yard line for the PAT and Ridge Coach Richard Tate decided to go for the win.
In the blink of an eye, Kowboys fans saw what appeared to be a sure victory evaporating before their eyes.
Davis seemed to have enough momentum to crash his way into the end zone, but the Kowboys didn’t yield and Davis was stopped just short of the goal line.
Kowboys Defensive Coordinator Scott Spencer said there was barely time to set the defense for the conversion attempt.
“That was all the kids on that play,” he said. “We were in goal line. They just had to make a play. They dug down and came up with a big stop. If you asked me who made the play, I’d have to say, ‘pick one.’ It was a pile.”
Tate could have kicked the PAT and played for overtime. Last season, OHS won 13-7 in overtime against the Bolts in the first round of the playoffs.
“We stole one,” was the way Osceola Coach Doug Nichols described the victory. “At the half, when we were up 15-7, we figured we were in pretty good shape, but we were terrible offensively in the second half. They were blitzing, selling out, in our face. Until that last drive, we couldn’t get anything going.”
Osceola defensive back James Farley returned an errant Pitts pitch-out 35 yards for a touchdown with 9:36 to play to give OHS a 22-15 lead.
“I was reading the quarterback. When the ball popped out, I saw it on the ground and picked it up and ran,” he said.
While the Kowboys’ defense got the lead, it struggled to hold on. Farley said he was as surprised as everyone else when Ridge scored as time expired.
“We didn’t get deep enough in coverage,” he said.
When Ridge elected to go for the win, Farley said the Kowboys thought that Pitts would try to find tight end George Rosell, who earlier caught a 2-point conversion pass and who had a big 42-yard reception in the fourth quarter to key a Bolts scoring drive.
“We thought they would be looking for the tight end on a turn out, but that was just a decoy,” he said. “We knew what kind of game it was going to be, a blood bath.”
Neither team led by more than eight points.
After a slow start, where the teams traded punts in the first quarter, Tate successfully gambled on a fake punt early in the second quarter and that led to Pitts’ 11-yard TD pass to Codaryl Pandolfo to make it 7-0 with 7:20 left in the half.
That energized the Kowboys offense and running back Stafon McCray (20-81, 1 TD) scored on a 1-yard plunge to cap a 57-yard drive that was sparked by Small’s 34-yard run on the first play. Nogueras tied the score at 7 with his PAT.
OHS got the ball right back when Nazaha Brown fell on a Bolts fumble on the ensuing kickoff, and Small (9-47, 1 TD) capped a 36-yard drive with a 9-yard run with 1:46 left in the second quarter. Scooter Fagan’s (6-60) 11-yard run on fourth-and-5 from the Bolts 19 kept the drive alive. Laderrien Wilson ran for two, making it 15-7.
A great play by Kowboys defensive back Hassan Childs prevented a Ridge TD just before the half. Childs grabbed a long pass away from Butler at the OHS 20 for an interception.
“I’ve been saying it all season, but these guys are a special group. You don’t always say that, but these guys play together, they really care about each other, and you see that week after week. That’s how we’re here,” Coach Nichols said. “Daequan did a great job on that last drive. That’s a guy who never played quarterback before May 1, and he wasn’t having a great night until that last drive. He made some huge plays for us.”
Nichols said he was going to give Harrison two chances to throw a touchdown pass on Osceola’s last possession with the score tied at 22 before calling on Nogueras to try a field goal.
“It’s a play we call Tide Quick. We send a couple of guys to the middle and try to look the safety over, and we got him to move just enough for Daequan to squeeze it in there,” he said.
Harrison said Nichols told him to understand the situation.
“He told me to be smart. If it wasn’t there, I had to throw it out of the end zone,” Harrison said. “I knew I had to make a play to win this game because it was so important. I have a lot of confidence in our receivers and all my teammates that they are going make the plays when they have to.”
Although Pitts made some big pass plays in the fourth quarter, for the most part the Kowboys defense contained him through the first three quarters. Defensive lineman Peter Bailey had two sacks for the Kowboys.
Ridge edged OHS in total yards, 273-223, but that is of little solace to the Bolts, who have never advanced past the second round of the playoffs during their eight-year history.
“We knew the best team was going to win,” Farley said.
The win was costly as defensive lineman Darren Brackbill suffered a significant knee injury and will miss Friday’s game, Nichols said.
Osceola would have traveled this week, but it is hosting Newsome because the Wolves are a district runner-up.