By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Local Florida Gators fans may want to visit Gannarelli Field Friday at 7:30 p.m. when Hagerty and quarterback Jeff Driskel visit St. Cloud for a non-district contest.

Driskel, 6-4, 240, verbally committed to Florida last summer.

“Who would I compare him to? Beside (Tim) Tebow?” asked St. Cloud Coach Bill Buldini. “That’s the obvious comparison. He’s something. He can run, he can throw. He’s a good player. They’ve put some guys with some skills around him, but he keeps them alive in a lot of games. He’s a flick of the wrist away from a touchdown on every play.”

St. Cloud, 3-3, comes off a disappointing 27-14 loss against East River that dropped St. Cloud to 0-2 in the 4A District 7 standings.

The Bulldogs will require a lot of help to reach the regional playoffs for the third straight year.

“We had a good week of preparation and we were ready for that game, that’s why it is so disappointing that we didn’t play up to our expectations,” Buldini said. “There’s nothing we can do about that now. We’ve got to prepare for Hagerty and take it from there.”

Four turnovers hurt St. Cloud. East River brought an old-school power running game that held the ball for most of the first half.

Still, it was only 7-0 midway into the third quarter when East River receiver Chris Street won a jump ball on a pass from quarterback Josh Jones and completed a 65-yard touchdown play.

“I thought we had the interception. I was getting ready to jump up, and then the ball is going the other way for a touchdown,” Buldini said.

The game seemed over after the Falcons’ Mike Bowen caught a 27-yard fourth-down TD pass with 9:19 left in the game, making it 20-0, but a pair of Falcons turnovers and two onside kick recoveries by the Bulldogs in the final three minutes made it interesting.

Irving Huggins took a screen pass from St. Cloud quarterback Phillip Steinmetz  and turned it into a 32-yard touchdown play with 2:36 left to cut the lead to 20-6, but after the Bulldogs recovered the onside kick, the Falcons’ Andrew Dubose returned an interception 55 yards to make it 27-6.

The Bulldogs quickly drove 65 yards to score again on Cole Harvey’s 12-yard TD catch from Steinmetz (6-22-75, 2 TDs). Steinmetz passed to Huggins for two points with 1:43 left and St. Cloud recovered another onside kick, but the rally ended when Steinmetz’s fourth-down pass was batted down at the line of scrimmage with 50 seconds left.

For the game, the Falcons outgained the Bulldogs, 365-125, and ran 21 more plays, 67-46.

“Some of those interceptions weren’t Phillip’s fault. We had a few tipped balls. The thing is, we just didn’t play real well,” Buldini said. “It hurts because it was in the district, but we can’t worry about it. We can only control what we control.”

Despite the lackluster offensive showing Friday, the Bulldogs still average 160 yards rushing, 230 yards passing and they score 25 points per game.

Hagerty, 3-2, lost to Winter Springs, 28-21, in a nationally televised game last week.

Driskel rushed for 97 yards and passed for 120.

“We need to be on point defensively,” Buldini said.

Friday’s game will be St. Cloud’s senior night.

The team plays its final four games on the road, all in Osceola County, at Poinciana, Liberty, Harmony and Gateway.

East River, Edgewater and Harmony all are unbeaten (2-0) in District 7 and the district’s two regional playoff representatives likely will come from among that trio.

But, the Bulldogs could conceivably forge a tie for second place by defeating district foes Poinciana, Liberty and Harmony, resulting in a 3-2 district record.

The three district leaders still must play one another.

Harmony travels to Edgewater Oct. 22 and to East River Oct. 29.