Past and present St. Cloud coaches Bryan Smart (left, the current Athletic Director) and Mike Short share a jubilant moment after the victory. (Photo/Taylor McFee)
Khalil Davis scored the only points of the second half on 58-yard interception return as St. Cloud ended a teenager’s lifetime of futility with an 18-15 win over rival Osceola in the 103rd edition of the game.
It was the Bulldogs’ first win in the series—the fifth oldest in Florida—since a 40-34 victory in 2010 that was eventually forfeited on a player eligibility issue. St. Cloud’s other wins in recent memory were in 2004 and ’05.
“It was a total team effort, we scored on offense, defense and special teams, but most of the credit goes to our defense,” St. Cloud Coach Mike Short said. “People talk about our offense a lot but for the last two seasons I’ve told people not to sleep on our defense. They made play after play tonight.”
That certainly was an understatement. In addition to Davis’ interception in the third quarter, the St. Cloud defense forced two other turnovers and limited Osceola to 138 yards and one offensive touchdown – that coming on a short field following a St. Cloud fumble.
It was an electric start for the Bulldogs when junior Jayden Taylor returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown and a 6-0 lead.
St. Cloud extended that to 12-0 in the second when Osceola quarterback Jabari Coombs broke loose to the second level but collided with the back judge and fumbled the ball. The Bulldogs recovered, and nine plays later quarterback Jeremiah Lattier overcame a slow start and hit Mathew Blenman in the right corner of the end zone from 19 yards for a 12-0 lead.
But the next five minutes looked like a repeat of last year – Osceola falling behind before storming back with big plays. On the ensuing kickoff after the Blenman touchdown, sophomore Jerry Canaday broke free and sped 94 yards for another return touchdown. Then, after Osceola was forced to kickoff from the 25 after an excessive celebration penalty, St. Cloud failed to handle the kickoff and Osceola recovered on the 30. Five plays later, Zylin Garrett was bottled up in the middle but bounced outside for a 12-yard touchdown run. Garrett then ran in the conversion to produce a 15-12 Osceola lead at the half.
The Kowboys appeared ready to take control. Josue Rivera returned the third quarter kickoff 40 yards to midfield and Osceola picked up two first downs to the 25. Three plays gained just three yards and Brayden Buehler’s 40-yard field goal banged off the left upright.
“I could not be more proud of how our team responded. They scored two quick ones and looked to seize momentum to start the third quarter and our guys simply did not panic,” Short said.
Following a three-and-out after the missed field goal, Osceola got the ball back, but Coombs was pressured into making an ill-advised throw on the run that was picked off and returned by Davis for the go-ahead score.
Osceola best chance to win came two series later when a Lattier pass was tipped but a potential interception was dropped with seven minutes remaining.
From there, St. Cloud managed to hold the ball for five minutes before turning the ball over back to Osceola on its own 9 with just under two minutes to go. After a short pass gained nothing, Coombs misfired on three straight passes to turn the ball back over to St. Cloud. Lattier took two knees to end the game.
“Frustrating, not a lot to say,” Osceola coach Eric Pinellas said. “Our offensive line is in shambles right now, we’re having a hard time lining up correctly and when we do, we fail to block the correct player. We put ourselves behind the chains with too many silly offensive penalties. Right now we are severely lacking in offensive leadership. We allow just one defensive score and lose the game, it’s hard to accept.”
Penalties were a huge factor as Osceola was flagged 12 times for 88 yards, with nine of those penalties being false starts, illegal shifts and delays of game.
Osceola held St. Cloud to just 100 yards of total offense – limiting Lattier, who authored a 2,800-yard passing season in 2025, to 9-for-33 for 82 yards and allowing just 17 yards rushing. But the Kowboys only scratched out 136 yards of total offense themselves. Garrett, a sophomore, led Osceola with 77 yards.
The Kowboys (0-1) will try to regroup next week against Poinciana, a 47-7 winner over Celebration; while St. Cloud (1-0) travels to Marietta, Ga.
“It was a long time coming, we are going to enjoy this one for a day or two but we’ll get back to work,” Short added. “Hopefully this win will help propel us to something special.”
