The St. Cloud Bulldogs played with grit and tenacity Friday in their Homecoming game Friday against Windermere.
They also played with momentum in stretches, but they weren’t enough to overcome Windermere (5-2) in a 24-13 loss.
To make it worse, Jaden Taylor-Irons, who’s made plays on both sides of the ball all year, went down with a serious lower-body injury and went off on a stretcher in the third quarter.
“Your heart just breaks for that kid,” Coach Mike Short said. “We tried our best to rally around each other after that, but it was hard.”
At 4-3, the Bulldogs playoff picture is now quite murky, and even with victories in remaining games against rivals Tohopekaliga (4-3) and Harmony (1-6) and an upstart Lake Howell (5-2).
“We really shot ourselves in the foot tonight,” Short said. “I thought the defense did a fantastic job getting a couple stops and turnovers to keep us in it.”
The defense did a good job to bottle up Wolverines running back Jabari Anderson, one of Orange County’s top backs, to 36 yards on 14 carries. But it was in the details Friday; the Bulldogs were 2-for-7 on fourth down and committing three key offsides penalties that helped keep the Windermere offense on the field in the first half as the Wolverines took a 10-6 lead into the half.
St. Cloud came right out with momentum, scoring on the game’s opening drive. Jeremiah Lattier’s 43-yard pass to Matthew Blenman got the offensive into the red zone, then Owen Sullivan climbed the ladder and got a toe down in the end zone on fourth-and-7 to score on the nine-play, 80-yard drive.
Windermere answered with a touchdown drive of their own, punctuated three minutes into the second quarter when quarterback Dean Monroe snuck over from the 1 on fourth down, then got a 29-yard field goal just before halftime when the Bulldogs defense bowed up in the red zone.
St. Cloud again stole the momentum coming out of the locker room; Taylor-Irons intercepted Monroe on the second play of the half, returning it to the 20, then Lattier, who was 20-of-39 for 248 yards on the night, hit Stacey Taylor-Irons alone in the end zone down the seam. The Bulldogs were out front 13-10, and a minute later were back on offense after the defense forced a three-and-out.
But the momentum quickly went the other way. Windermere’s Trace Kulczar stepped in front of a Lattier pass and took it 35 yards for a score to regain the lead. The Wolverines stretched it to 24-13 after a fourth-down stop of their own and a drive that led to a 7-yard Anderson TD run.
Undaunted, St. Cloud pieced together a drive, that included a 33-yard pitch-and-catch from Lattier to Stacey Taylor-Irons. But on 4th-and-goal from the 1, Sullivan couldn’t bully into the end zone with as the third quarter wound down.
“It’s a different ball game if we get that score there,” Short said. “That puts pressure on them with how well our defense was playing.”
That defense held Windermere in the shadow of their goal line, but a questionable roughing the kicker call on the fourth-down punt gave the Wolverines back the ball with the chance to run more of the clock down.
Colton Sklarek recovered a fumble near midfield with 4:45 left in the game to give the Bulldogs a fighting chance, but another fourth-down incompletion into the end zone a minute later diffused any comeback hopes.
“We’ll go back to the drawing board, because we’ve got two huge ones with Toho next week and the guys down the road after that,” Short said.
