Tigers, No. 1 in Central Florida, made too many big plays
Osceola’s execution of its game plan was almost flawless. They wanted to use power running to shorten the game, win the special teams battle and come up with some big stops on defense.
And although the Kowboys checked all three boxes, Jones (4-0) did just enough Thursday to beat Osceola (3-2) in overtime, 34-28.
At the end of the day it was big plays by Jones and an offensive gaff that cost Osceola.
With time winding down and the score tied at 28-28, the Kowboys blocked a punt and took over on the Jones 43 with 2:36 remaining. A 30-yard run by Taevion Swint gave Osceola a first and 10 on the 12. Osceola ran the ball on three consecutive downs – gaining just three yards -- and with the clock running down, quarterback Camren West lost track of the plays and ended up spiking the ball on fourth down.
“We have a young quarterback who lost track of downs, simple as that,” Osceola coach Eric Pinellas said. “But at the end of the day, that is on me. With no timeouts, we should have either spiked it just kicked the field goal on third down. I just didn’t want to give their explosive offense back the ball with 35 or 45 seconds left. We had a running play called on third down that we felt had a chance to go for a touchdown. Unfortunately, they made a play and the clock kept running.”
Giving the ball back to the Tigers would have been a legitimate concern. Although Osceola’s defense played pretty well all night, Jones quarterback Dareon Coleman completed 22 of 38 passes for nearly 400 yards. He threw touchdown passes of 44, 20, 42 and 26 yards in the game and had three other completions of more than 20 yards. Vernell Brown III was his favorite target, catching 13 passes for 229 yards; while sophomore WR Antoine Glover caught two touchdown passes and Larry Miles caught four passes for 72 yards and a score, Jacquil Smith caught two for 62 yards and also ran four times for 42 more.
But, take away the nine chunk plays for Jones, Osceola allowed four yards per play and had four sacks. “Big plays certainly hurt us,” Pinellas said. “But even on some of those, we were in position to make a play. We have an interception slip through our hands it turns into 70-yard pass play. We lose containment and they complete a pass for a touchdown on a third and goal from the 26. Things like that really hurt us.”
After falling behind 7-0, Osceola tied it on a 31-yard touchdown run by Swint. The Kowboys then forced a punt in the final minute of the first quarter, which Alijah Jenkins returned 90 yards for a touchdown. After the Tigers made it 14-13, Osceola grinded out an 18-play, 67-yard drive capped off by a 1-yard run on fourth down by Swint. The drive took more than nine minutes and burned all but 12 seconds off the first half clock.
Osceola took the second-half opening kickoff and drove 66 yards to take a 28-13 lead. West covered the final 40 yards when he faked a handoff up the middle, sprinted around right end and ran 40-yard untouched for a score.
It was the Kowboys’ last score. On Jones’ next possession, Coleman floated a pass that was tipped and almost intercepted but it fell into Brown’s hands in space and he raced 68 yards to the Osceola 12. Three plays later Coleman hit Glover on a 12-yard slant to cut the gap to 28-20.
Osceola stalled out on their next two drives and Jones went 62 yards in six plays with a 42-yard pass Smith, and a two-point conversion tied the score.
The Kowboys won the toss and overtime and elected to play defense first. Brown ran it in from Wildcat formation on third down from the 1, but the Tigers missed the extra point on a bad snap. Three OHS running plays netted just four yards and on a fourth down, West rolled right but came up short on his pass into the end zone and the Tigers held on for the win.
Osceola finished the game with 268 yards rushing and grinded out three long touchdown drives. Its defense came up with five defensive stops on Jones’ 10 possessions, had four quarterback sacks, a blocked punt, the long punt return for touchdown and kicker Adrian Gonzalez booted all five of his kickoffs out of the end zone.
“Obviously our guys were really disappointed, and I thought we played well enough in most areas to win against a great team, but I told our guys after the game that they have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. We went toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the state and took them to overtime. I told them this game proves we can play with anyone in the state. All our goals are still ahead of us, we will regroup and come back strong next week.”
The Kowboys host one of their two District 5A-6 games next week against Melbourne.
