Stacy Taylor hauls in one of his three touchdown catches Friday. (Photo/Taylor McFee)
It was a little late coming -- like a week, according to the coach, and an hour and a half, according to Mother Nature -- but the St. Cloud Bulldogs arrived loud and dominant in the 2025 season.
St. Cloud scored the final 48 points of a complete-effort 55-8 rout of Freedom in Orlando.
Quarterback Marcus Lattier was 10-for-20 for 186 yards and five touchdowns passing; he threw three of them to Stacy Taylor (five catches, 87 yards).
Coach Mike Short said his offense had a lot to prove after stuttering for stretches of last week's Kickoff Classic against Innovation.
"This is who I wanted to see last week," he said. "But they showed up and it was a lot of fun."
If the offense had fun, the defense had a riot. The Bulldogs held the Patriots to minus-27 yards of offense and no first downs. Freedom, coached by former Liberty head coach and St. Cloud assistant Brandon Pennington, only moved the ball with its own defense after a Lattier pass was tipped and intercepted by Etai Ron-Talbot, who returned it 85 yards to give Freedom an 8-7 lead four minutes into the game.
But that, a pair of fumbles and some dropped passes, likely thanks to a wet football, were the only miscues. After a 90-minute thunderstorm delay, The Bulldogs took that delayed kickoff and scored in two plays: an Owen Sullivan 11-yard catch and a 34-yard scoring run by Cameron Dalton, who ran for 106 yards on 11 carries.
Briefly behind in the first quarter after turnovers ended back-to-back drives, St. Cloud took control. Jude Cockcroft intercepted a middle screen pass, and then Bryce Williams scored twice in 15 seconds on a six-yard swing pass and a 45-yard interception return on Freedom's next snap to make it 21-8 nine minutes into the game.
St. Cloud stretched the lead in the second quarter thanks to Taylor. He hauled in a 31-yard scoring catch, then extended the Bulldogs next drive with a 33-yard seam route catch on fourth-and-23. His five-yard pop pass catch and run made it 35-8 heading into halftime. He and Matthew Blenman caught shovel swing passes of 13 and 19 yards in the second half, and Santiago Ochoa scored on a 49-yard run as St. Cloud piled up 328 yards while the defense did not let Freedom get within 10 yards of the 50-yard-line.
After two games in Orange County, the Bulldogs will have their home opener next Friday at 7:30 p.m. against Pine Ridge at Tom Gannarelli Field.
