Kowboys beat St. Cloud for the 15th straight time, 44-7
Osceola quarterback Amaree Rutland looks for a receiver in Friday's 44-7 victory over St. Cloud. (Photo/Katie Williams)
On paper, the 102nd edition of the Osceola and St. Cloud series will go as another lopsided blowout Kowboys’ victory—their 15th in a row after Friday’s 44-7 win.
But in reality, it was anything but a blowout.
St. Cloud (3-1) battled Osceola (3-1) to a first half offensive standoff and actually took a 7-6 lead at the start of the third quarter when Jeremiah Lattier connected with Bryce Williams on a tipped pass that went 65-yards for a touchdown.
It could be argued that the Bulldogs actually out-played Osceola to that point.
In the first half, the St. Cloud defense stopped the Kowboys on all five of their offensive possessions and were in position to take the lead.
Two long fourth-down completions from Jeremiah Lattier to Owen Sullivan of 25 and 35 yards had the Bulldogs set up at the Osceola 15. But on the next play, Ja’Mario Bradford stepped in front of a Lattier pass and ran the interception back 93 yards for an Osceola 6-0 lead.
But St. Cloud stopped the next two Osceola drives and after the Williams touchdown to start the third period led the game for the first time in years.
But that play that should have given St. Cloud momentum instead seemed to light a fire under the entire Kowboys’ team. On the next series, Osceola drove 69 yards in nine plays with Jeffrey Sinophat capping the drive off with a 30-yard touchdown reception from Amaree Rutland. The play put Osceola back in front 12-7 and would be the first of 38 unanswered points.
The Kowboys defense forced a quick three-and-out and followed it with another score, a 16-yard run by Jaxson Hardnett as Osceola led 19-7 after three quarters.
Any thought of a St. Cloud rally was quickly snuffed out in the fourth. Another defensive stop set Osceola up at Bulldog 44. Rutland completed a 28-yard pass to tight end Joseph Sidaui. Two plays later Sinophat ran it over from the one to push the lead to 28-7. On the ensuing kickoff, St. Cloud fumbled and Nathan Barnett recovered on one hop and raced 30 yards for another score.
Bradford then capped the scoring with his second pick-six of the game, returning a Lattier interception 40 yards for a score and sent the game to a running clock.
In addition to the two defensive touchdowns and special teams score, Osceola added six sacks.
“I preached to our kids all week that St. Cloud was going to come in here with the idea they could win the game,” Osceola Coach Eric Pinellas said. “I guess they didn’t get the message until the third quarter. Overall, I thought other than a couple broken plays our defense was really good. We moved the ball in the first half a little but kept shooting ourselves in the foot with mistakes, turnovers and penalties.”
St. Cloud Coach Mike Short had his own perspective.
“It was a hell of a ball game up until we started making some mistakes in the second half. If we take care of the ball in the first half and don’t throw that pick six and get that touchdown play, we could have been up two scores and then who knows what happens,” he said. “Give Osceola a ton of credit, they fought like crazy. Still, I don’t think we folded either. They were able to run a lot of plays in the second half and I think we just wore down defensively.”
Both teams will face stiff challenges next week. Osceola travels to Jones (2-2), who dropped a 20-17 decision to fellow state power Edgewater Friday; while St. Cloud travels to Merritt Island (2-2), whose only two losses came to elite Cocoa and Deland.
