Osceola's answer to its first district loss in a decade was a resounding 47-6 win over Celebration Friday at Markus Paul Field.
Seven different Kowboys scored touchdowns, and the defense held Storm running back Oniel Senatus, among the state rushing leaders coming in, to 31 yards on 22 carries — 20 came on one run.
With the loss to West Orange last week in District 8A-9 play, the Kowboys bank on an at-large bid to get into the Region 3 playoffs. It would likely take wins over the Storm and Orange City University next week to clinch that. OHS (7-2, 4-1 in 8A-9) took that first step Friday, but it took a while to get steppin' as they led by just 7-0 at halftime before staging a second-half onslaught. The Kowboys were also their own worst enemies; the big win was in spite of 142 yards in penalties.
"We've got to get the idea out of some kids head that when teams see 'Kowboys' on the chest they just lay down," Kowboys Coach Eric Pinellas said. "We've got to play four quarters; we're a lot of teams' Super Bowls. This was not the Celebration of old, they are well-coached.
The only points of the first half came on an OHS eight-play, 96-yard drive that took over four minutes. Chad Mascoe hit Chris Combs on a 30-yard touchdown pass. The drive came after a Kowboys' goal-line stand, when Celebration (5-4, 1-4) had 1st-and-goal at the 1 and didn't get in.
Osceola snuffed out a fake punt on Celebration's first third-quarter drive, and five plays later Mascoe struck again on an 11-yard scoring pass to Izaiah Jean-Baptiste. Interceptions set up the Kowboys' next two scores; Lacory Walker's INT led to a two-yard Ja'Randy Swint run, and then Bo Mascoe's 78-yard pick-six made it 26-0 at the end of the third quarter.
Taevion Swint, C.J. Walls and Bryce Reed scored fourth-quarter rushing touchdowns. Senatus put Celebration on the board with a three-yard TD run. The Kowboys rolled up 468 yards, 284 passing and 184 rushing. Mascoe hit 13 of 17 passes and completed 12 in a row at one point. Jayden Bradford also had an interception.
While Storm quarterback Dylan Davis managed 152 yards on 13-of -35 passing, Osceola held it to 17 yards rushing.
"That's phenomenal team, and we needed to score by 7s to stay with them," CHS Coach Rich Pringle said. "You can't make the mistakes we did, especially in the red zone. We accorded ourselves very well against Osceola for a half, then we ran out of juice and ran out of depth. It's the best front-four we've faced all year. "
Osceola closes with OCU at home next week; Celebration hosts Gateway (2-7) for a shot at it's second-best season ever.
