By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Lethargic and trailing 7-0 to Harmony at the half, Osceola needed a spark.

They got it on Terrance Tatume’s 40-yard punt return that set up a touchdown early in the third quarter on the way to the Kowboys’ 14-7 win at Kowboy field.

Osceola, 2-3, won for the second time in six days while Harmony, 3-1, lost for the first time.

Tatume’s return gave OHS a first down at the Longhorns 35. On the next play, Reggie Hall (13-161, 1 TD) ran 32 yards to the 3, and after a 5-yard penalty, Frank Thomas scored on a 5-yard run with 8:03 to play in the third quarter. Cody Ausherman’s kick tied the score at 7.

Hall’s 50-yard touchdown run on Osceola’s next possession was the game-winner, making it 14-7 after Ausherman’s kick with 4:16 to play.

Harmony dominated the second quarter, holding the ball for all but eight plays. Quarterback Adam Harvey led the team on an eight-minute, 83-yard drive that reached the OHS 2 before stalling.

But, after forcing OHS to punt, Harvey (2-8-34, 1 TD) found tight end Brad Foulke wide open for a 32-yard touchdown pass with 1:17 left in the half. Chris Spanglo’s PAT made it 7-0.

The Longhorns outgained OHS 118-52 in the first half, but those numbers reversed after the half when the Kowboys rushed for 171 yards and held the Longhorns to just 54.

Most of the Kowboys’ yardage came from Hall, who also had a 58-yard run in the fourth quarter that Harmony safety Dan Foshee stopped at the Horns’ 32.

“My quad started to tighten up on that one,” Hall, a senior said. “I’m hurting in a lot of places, my muscles are aching a lot.”

He looked fine during his weaving 50-yard TD sprint through the Longhorns defense.

“Yeah, nothing was bothering me on that one,” he said.

Most agreed after the game that Tatume’s punt return was pivotal.

“I don’t know what it is, but if these kids make a big play on their first possession of a half, it seems to pick them up and they go right down the field. They even did that at Dr. Phillips,” Kowboys Coach Doug Nichols said. “We were just lethargic in the first half. We didn’t have any emotion at all, but that return seemed to pick us up.”

Tatume, a senior, said he wanted to make a play to shake up the Kowboys.

“We talked about it at the half. I knew I needed to do something to get us going,” he said. “It was a blue return. It was supposed to go left.”

Harmony Coach Dayne Brown said his team was unable to sustain the momentum it built in the second quarter.

“I don’t know, the return seemed to get them a little bit juiced,” Brown said. “I thought we got physically whipped in the second half. We didn’t seem to have the same kind of effort like we did in the first half.”

Osceola offensive lineman Adam Stickle, a junior, said the team picked up the tempo after the half.

“We started getting our blocks. We had to work harder and start hitting people,” he said.

That is the same formula the Kowboys will need to use next week at Lakeland George Jenkins for the team’s 5A District 4 opener.

“We just need to come out and hit people right away,” he said.

Osceola defensive back/running back Steffon McCray left the game with an ankle injury, and defensive back Brandon Jones was out with a hand injury, Nichols said.

“It seemed like we were running out of people at times,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll be fine for next week. This was a nice win for us. Harmony is good. Coach Brown always has his team prepared. That’s as well-coached team as we’ll see this year.”

C.J. Clayton rushed for 114 yards for the Longhorns.

Neither team had a turnover in the well-played game.