On paper, Osceola’s 17-7 road win Friday night over Armwood in the Class 6A, Region 2 championship game was an upset. Just don’t tell that to Osceola coach Eric Pinellas and his Kowboys.
Although top-seeded Armwood came into the game undefeated record (12-0) and sporting a 36.6 points-per- game scoring differential, it was the Kowboys (11-2) who looked like the superior team by game’s end.
“Absolutely this was not an upset,” an elated Pinellas said after the game. “They may have been undefeated, they may have been the top seed in the region, and they may have had home field advantage, but what they didn’t have was the better team. They piled up a bunch of wins against weaker teams, and I can promise you that we were the most physical team they have seen all year.”
Osceola had plenty of heroes in the game.
Taevion Swint rushed for 136 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Quarterback Camren West made some big plays with both his legs and his arm. The Kowboys’ front seven held 1,000-yard rusher Girard Pringle to under 50 yards on 17 carries and the Osceola defensive backs gave up just one touchdown and forced two turnovers.
The win puts Osceola in a Friday night game against Region 1 champ Gainesville Buchholz (10-3), a 25-19 winner over Oakleaf. It will be Osceola’s second appearance in the Final Four in the last three years. The game will kick at 7:30 p.m. at Citizen’s Field in Gainesville. The winner of that game will play for the state championship at Pitbull Stadium on the FAU campus a week later.
“We really don’t know a lot about them,” Pinellas said about Buchholz. “We will look at film over the weekend and come up with a game plan for them. For now, we’ll enjoy this one today and will get back to work tomorrow.”
Friday’s game started slowly, with neither team scoring in the first half. Armwood had the most opportunities, however. Taking advantage of outstanding field position for most of the first half, they reached the red zone twice – only to be turned back on both occasions by the Osceola defense.
Their biggest opportunity came on the Hawks first and last possession of the half. A shanked Osceola punt set Armwood up at the Osceola 22. But on a fourth and inches from the 13, Osceola stuffed Pringle for a four-yard loss.
Leading into halftime, Armwood put together a time-consuming 76-yard drive. But fourth-and-2 the Kowboys defense stymied a Wildcat play for no gain to keep the game scoreless.
After forcing a punt, Osceola broke the deadlock on its first possession of the third quarter. On third-and- 11, Swint took a handoff on a counter, broke one tackle in the secondary and outran the Hawk defense for a 67-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
Brush came back immediately to hit a 58-yard pass to Tyler Williams on the next Armwood possession. But two plays later Osceola defensive backs separated Williams from the ball and recovered on Osceola 32. West then faked a handoff, dropped back and hit Alijah Jenkins on a 34-yard pass. Swint then broke off a 17-yard run to set up Adrian Gonzalez’s 34-yard field goal to make it 10-0.
Armwood finally got on the board at the end of the third quarter, as Brush directed a 9-play, 80-yard drive. A 33-yard pass from Brush to Williams got the drive started and two hooked up for an 18-yard gain on 4th-and-6 to keep the drive going. Two plays later, Brush connected from six yards out to Kendrick Ford to cut the gap to 10-7.
After the teams exchanged punts, Osceola put the game away on its next possession. Taking over on the 45 after a short punt, the Kowboys went 55 yards on nine plays with Swint carrying it over from the two for the game-clincher.
“We were a little frustrated earlier in the game with our inability to move the ball,” Osceola lineman Connor Howes said. “But we talked it over at halftime and knew we just had to stick to the plan and keep pounding the ball at them.”
After the Swint touchdown, Brush moved Armwood from its own 10 to the Osceola 38, but on the next play the Kowboys defense separated Pringle from the ball and Nathaniel Barnett recovered the fumble with 1:08 remaining. From there, Osceola took two knees to end the game.
In addition to Swint, Elijah Hickson gained a tough 30 yards on 11 carries; West ran for 28 and passed for 47 more. Brush was sacked three times but managed to complete 20 of 29 passes for 257 yards.
