By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Osceola beat Lithia Newsome, 21-18, Friday at Kowboys field to advance to next week’s Class 7A state semifinals, just one step away from the championship game.

And, again, it wasn’t easy.

Davante “Tay” Small’s 69-yard TD run with 7:58 left gave the Kowboys (13-0) a 21-10 advantage, just enough to hold off a determined Wolves team that, led by quarterback Will Worth, wouldn’t go away.

Osceola will host Tallahassee Lincoln, a 35-29 winner over Oviedo, next week for a berth at the Class 7A championship game at the Citrus Bowl Dec. 14.

But, until Osceola’s banged up defensive line collapsed on Worth on fourth-and-9 at the Kowboys 32 with 1:31 to play, there was little breathing room for OHS.

Part of the reason was a stubborn Wolves defense that held the Kowboys to 241 total yards. Then, there were the 10 penalties for 95 yards that crippled OHS and kept Newsome’s last touchdown drive alive in the fourth quarter. Worth, who rushed 19 times for 104 yards and passed for 95 more and a touchdown, sneaked over from the 1 with 5:52 to play to cut the Kowboys lead to 21-16. Worth, who also played linebacker, then passed to Clint Carnell for two points to bring the Wolves to within a field goal.

The strategy almost paid off. Osceola unintentionally gambled on a fourth-and-5 fake punt that came up inches short at their 47, giving the Wolves plenty of time with 3:37 left to tie the game, or win it.

“It wasn’t a called play,” Kowboys Coach Doug Nichols said about the fake punt. “I don’t know what got into their heads, but apparently it was supposed to be a rugby punt. It won’t be in next week.”

Worth scrambled for six yards to the OHS 32 with just over 2 minutes left, but a 5-yard procedure penalty pushed it back to the Kowboys 38. A third down pass play was ruled out of bounds, and the Kowboys defensive front of Peter Bailey, Jaqwuan Dockery, Dalton Banton and Derek Rivers smothered Worth on a keeper on fourth-and-9.

With the Wolves (8-5)  out of timeouts, Kowboys quarterback Daequan Harrison took a knee three times to ice the victory.

Bailey, a senior and the only Kowboys starting defensive lineman who has stayed healthy over the past month, said on fourth-and-9 the defense keyed on Worth.

“Watch the quarterback and get a sack,” was the strategy, he said.

It worked.

“He’s (Worth) good. He’s very much better than I expected he’d be. He came with a lot of heart,” Bailey said.

Kowboys linebacker Mikeice Adams, who, like his teammates, nailed several Wolves players with hard hits, said the Kowboys expected Worth to try and make the play on fourth down.

“My job was to mirror the quarterback,” he said. “He’s good. We had to adjust to him.”

The Kowboys limited the Wolves to 255 total yards. The only other big play for Newsome was Worth’s 28-yard TD pass to Aaron Wade with 39 seconds left in the first half, giving the Wolves a 10-7 lead at intermission.

With Newsome’s defense committed to stopping the Kowboys’ leading rusher, Stafon McCray (19-48, 1 TD), the Kowboys relied on Harrison, Dwight Fagan and Small to come up with big plays.

Harrison led a 67-yard, 15-play drive late in the first half, capped by McCray’s 1-yard TD plunge, to put OHS ahead 7-3 in the second quarter. Harrison ran twice for 14 yards from the Wolves 15 to set up McCray’s score.

Osceola had one more sustained drive covering 80 yards in the third quarter, capped by Fagan’s (7-50, 1 TD) 7-yard run. Cristano Nogueras added the PAT to make it 14-10.

OHS forced a Newsome punt, but an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty moved the Kowboys back to their 14. After McCray moved the ball to the 31 on two carries, Small (11-125, 1 TD) ran a counter play, cut up the field and outran the Wolves for his 69-yard TD run.

“I read the guard. If he turns it up, I go inside; if he takes it outside, then I go outside,” Small said.

It sounds easy, but every team that looks at Osceola’s video knows that the play is coming.

“I think what happens is that they get so caught up in our outside motion that the cut back catches them by surprise,” Nichols said. “We weren’t real consistent.  We’d punt, punt, go 80 yards, then punt a couple more times. We couldn’t get into a flow.”

But, the Kowboys defense did its job. Defensive back Hassan Childs came up with his eighth interception in the first half and Brandon Baker broke up a potential TD pass. And, OHS kept pounding Newsome’s backs and receivers all night.

“Those cats just keep at it,” Nichols said.

Defensive lineman Dalton Banton spent one day in the hospital last weekend with a fever that reached 105 degrees, he said.

But, he was out there on Friday night because he knew he was needed. The Kowboys already were down two starters, and Dockery injured his ankle in the first quarter and had to be helped off the field at the end of the game.

“I knew I was going to play,” Banton said. “The only thing was, I was tired. But, as the week went on, I knew I could play. I had to be there for my teammates. I knew they needed me.”

Bailey said Banton was definitely needed.

“We already were missing our 3-technique lineman (Darren Brackbill, who sprained his knee last week against Ridge Community) and our 1-technique (Dockery) hurt his ankle in the first quarter,” he said. “We had to have the young guys fill in.”

But, OHS is now where it has been only a few times before, one step from the championship game, and Bailey likes it.

“It’s what we’ve been practicing for all year,” he said. “It’s the playoffs, everyone has to step up.”