Osceola tunes up for playoffs with win in Lake Wales
It turned out to be a classic memory for the St. Cloud seniors.
Logan King, TJ Griffin and Alex Springs all came up big, as the Bulldogs dominated the 20th edition of the Soldier City Classic with a 29-8 win on Friday night.
King completed 19 of 28 passes for 225 yards and three touchdowns. King caught eight of those passes for 109 yards and two touchdowns and Griffin rushed for 141 yards and also caught a 27-yard pass the St. Cloud seniors dominated the game.
“I would not be truthful if I told you that I wasn’t seriously worried about this game tonight,” St. Cloud coach Mike Short said. “We did not have a good week of practice and it seemed like our attention was elsewhere. But this Classic was a game for our seniors. They have led us all year and did so again tonight.”
In other Friday action on Friday, Poinciana (6-2) claimed a third win in the Battle of the Boulevard with a 47-8 win over Liberty (2-6). The Eagles will go for a seventh win with a home matchup Friday against Timber Creek.
Osceola (7-2) won its fifth straight game with an impressive 28-17 road win over 4-A power Lake Wales. Taevion Swint rushed for two touchdowns, Alijah Jenkins caught a touchdown pass and Jeff Banks recovered a blocked punt for a score as the Kowboys went on a 21-0 run in the second half to overcome a halftime deficit. Osceola will close out its regular season Friday night at home against St. Petersburg Lakewood (4-4).
St. Cloud struggled to score out of the gate, finally getting things going in the second quarter. King led a 10-play, 97-yard drive capped by a 10-yard scoring pass to Springs. Following a two-point conversion, St. Cloud recovered an onsides kick and then made it 11-0 on Daniel Elizando’s 32-yard field goal.
St. Cloud recovered another onsides kick and King needed just three plays to get in the end zone again as Springs caught a swing pass and raced 46 yards for a score and 19-0 lead.
“We practice those onsides kicks all the time and when we got one last week, we decided to put it in the game plan. When it worked the first time, we decided to do it again and got it back,” Short said. “At that point I felt we took control.”
Thanks to those onside kicks, St. Cloud scored 19 points and essentially kept possession of the ball for 23 consecutive plays and 11 minutes of clock time.
Meanwhile, when they did possess the ball in the first half, Harmony gained just 31 yards and two first downs on their first three possessions. After St. Cloud stopped them on their third possession, Griffin broke loose on a 54-yard run and King hit Gunner Freeman on an 11-yard scoring pass for his third TD toss and a 26-0 halftime lead.
Although St. Cloud dominated the offensive stats in the second half, Harmony showed some fight and even outscored the Bulldogs 7-3 in the final two quarters, cutting the lead to 29-8 on a 60-yard, 16-play drive capped by a Ivan Ramos 6-yard touchdown run and a two-point conversion by Kal Amen. They recovered an onsides kick of their own but failed to score.
The win lifted St. Cloud to 5-4 and gave them two wins in a row, five in six years and an 11-9 lead in the Soldier City Classic. The 21-point Bulldog win means the rivalry, over 20 years, is separated by just 5 points.
More importantly, it also kept their at-large playoff hopes alive that they can improve on those chances with a home win over Ridge Community in their Nov. 6 season finale.
Harmony (2-7) concludes its season next Friday at Colonial.
