OHS running back led county scoring and rushing stats

By Rick Pedone

Sports Editor

Stafon McCray’s limo got into a minor fender bender at the junior-senior prom at Lake Buena Vista last April.

That was one of the few times that the Kowboys senior running back got held up this year.

McCray found few roadblocks on the football field, and when he did, he generally crashed through them or used his 4.39 speed in the 40-yard dash to sprint away from them.

McCray led Osceola County with 1,760 yards rushing on 228 attempts, and he scored 25 touchdowns and a county-high 154 points. For the second year in a row, he is the Osceola News-Gazette Football Offensive Player of the Year.

McCray, who rushed for 1,508 yards in 2011, got faster and bigger. On a team with many talented playmakers, he was the hub around which everything else revolved.

“If it was a little different when I wasn’t in the game, it was probably because the other coaches knew that if I wasn’t in there, that things would probably run through the wings on the outside rather than up the middle,” McCray said. “But, they put Laderrien (Wilson) in there when I wasn’t playing, and he’s big and strong like me, he just isn’t as fast.”

McCray, 6-0 and 210, about 20 pounds heavier than he was last year, felt like he was a better running back this season.

“I think so. I got bigger, but I got faster, too,” he said.

McCray, fittingly, finished his high school career with a 148-yard performance against Tallahassee Lincoln in the Class 7A state semifinal game that included a 33-yard TD dash.

It is a bittersweet memory for McCray, who felt, like his teammates, that Osceola should have advanced to the championship game.

“We just made too many mistakes,” he said, alluding to six turnovers in the Lincoln game. “It was tough.”

McCray, selected to the FACA North-South All-Star game, said he considers Osceola’s 13-1 season special because, by advancing through three rounds of the playoffs, Osceola enjoyed extended success against quality opponents.

The Kowboys’ 16-2 win over Lakeland in the regional quarterfinal round sent the message, McCray said, that the Kowboys were the real deal in 2012.

“OHS is known as a team that gets to the playoffs, but for the past few years we’d go out in the first round or the second round, we couldn’t seem to get past Lakeland,” McCray said. “That’s why we felt like it was important for this senior class to step up, to show everyone that it was our time. We had to show what Kowboy football is about. We didn’t beat Lakeland since 2007, but when we did that this year, that was a huge win for us.”

McCray is smart enough to know that his success is largely dictated by the work of the offensive line. Entering the season, the line was a question mark after four starters from the 2011 team graduated.

“The offensive line, it was inexperienced when we started the season and it didn’t have all those big guys like we had last year to block because they graduated, but the O-line really stepped up for us,” McCray said. “Those guys did a great job.”

McCray, like most Division I prospects, is on the recruiting trail before National Signing Day Feb. 6.

Utah State, Miami-Ohio and Boise State are potential landing spots, he said.

“I want to go to someplace a little different. This is nice here (in Florida), but there are a lot of other places that are nice to see,” he said.

There were several other worthy candidates for offensive player of the year.

Gateway senior running back Zach Smith had a stellar season with 1,680 yards rushing on 212 carries and 19 touchdowns.

He was the county’s rushing leader until McCray, who played in three more games, passed him after the Kowboys’ game against Lincoln.

With Smith leading the way, the Panthers won a school-record seven games.

St. Cloud senior running back Eric Pfeifer capped an excellent career with the Bulldogs by running for 1,233 yards on 173 carries and 15 touchdowns.

The News-Gazette All-County Football Defensive team will be published Jan. 5.