Celebration hosts bowl game
After a 10-game regular season, two things are apparent concerning Friday’s night regional quarterfinal between Newsome and Osceola. First, the 8-2 Wolves are really, really good at running the ball. The second is that the Kowboys are really, really good at stopping the run.
Whichever team wins controls the running game will most likely win and move on to the next round.
“They are a sound football team and they are well coached,” Osceola Coach Eric Pinellas said. “They are really disciplined and run a lot of double wing. Defending and stopping the run will be the key for us.”
The District 8A-10 champions, Newsome, southeast of Tampa, enters the playoffs on a three-game win streak – including a 22-13 win over Armwood last week. They average 28.6 points per game and feature an inside-outside running game.
Wolves’ power running Jason Albritton (5-10, 220) has 1,258 yards on 203 carries with 14 touchdowns. J.C. Roque has rushed for 716 yards and 8 TDs and caught 15 passes for 233 yards and four more scores. Senior quarterback Christian Bishop (6-1, 175) has 900 passing yards and nine touchdowns this season and has been intercepted four times.
“Roque runs a lot of jet sweeps and they use him on the wheel route out of the backfield,” Pinellas said. “The quarterback is new this year and is a little taller than the kid last year. He sees the field pretty good and can throw a little. But their bread and butter is the ground game.”
Defensively, Newsome has been solid this season – allowing just 12.5 points per game. Amir Austin is a ball-hawking corner who has intercepted five passes. Defensive end Travis Jandrlich has six sacks and outside linebacker Caden Huffman leads the Wolves in tackles (76) and tackles-for-loss (11.5).
Osceola is familiar with the opponent, having defeated Newsome, 17-7, on the road in the regional final of last year’s COVID-crazy season, and Pinellas said there’s familiarity.
“They basically run the same thing on offense and a lot of their key players are back from last year,” he said. “They run the same offense we used to run, so our older defensive players are used to practicing against it every day.”
Although its offense has been explosive at times, it is the Kowboys defense that has stood out this season. Heading into last week’s regular season finale against University, Osceola had allowed just 142 total rushing yards in its eight previous games combined. The Kowboys allowed almost 100 rushing yards but still held the Titans to eight points.
“They caught us out of position a few times. Bottom line is our defense still carried us and we found a way to win the game.”
Osceola’s normally potent offense was held to season lows in points (13), total yards (170) and rushing yards (141). Freshman running back Taevion Swint rushed for 114 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including the game winner with less than three minutes to go.
Quarterback Chad Mascoe, who was held out of the first two series for what Pinellas described as a “team matter”, completed five of 12 passes for just 41 yards but perhaps made the biggest play of the game when he threaded the needle on a 4-yard completion to Isaiah Jean-Baptiste on 4th-and-3 to keep the game-winning drive alive.
“We thought we would be able to move the ball through the air against (University),” Pinellas said. “Obviously that changed with the torrential downpour we had to play in. We had a chance to punch it in on our second possession and didn’t do it and it became a game of field position. We didn’t have any turnovers in the game and we held them to one score and that’s something any coach would be happy with.”
With a with Friday, the Kowboys would face the winner of Durant (8-2) and West Orange (9-1) in the regional semifinals the following week. Osceola lost the district championship game, 35-21, to West Orange.
“We certainly are not looking ahead to anything,” Pinellas added. “We’re happy to be in the playoffs, but we are taking every game one at a time.”
Friday’s postseason slate also includes Celebration’s bowl game. The Storm will host Orlando Freedom, a matchup of (6-4) teams who did not qualify for the Class 8A playoffs, at 7:30 p.m.
Celebration can match its best season in school history (7-4) with a victory. Last week Coach Rich Pringle’s team ended the regular season with a 35-21 win over county foe Gateway. Junior running back Oniel Senatus had another huge game with 334 total yards (277 on the ground) and four touchdowns. He has 1,654 rushing yards and 24 total touchdowns entering Friday.
