Osceola hosts Plant City Durant in Friday's regional semifinals
One More Monday.
“It’s been the rallying cry of our football team this time of year forever,” Osceola Coach Eric Pinellas said. “It started when Doug Nichols was the coach and it means on Monday, we want another week of practice and another playoff game to play. That only happens if you keep winning.”
Osceola (9-2) has had it share of “One More Mondays” throughout the years, often making deep runs into the post-season. They earned another “One More Monday” last Friday night with a convincing 58-14 win over Viera in the first round of the FHSAA Class 6A, Region 2 playoffs and now move on to host Durant (8-3) in a regional semifinal game this Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Markus Paul Stadium.
Durant was a 35-17 winner over South Lake last week.
“They are an athletic team that likes to run the ball,” Pinellas said of this week’s opponent. “But that sort of plays into our hands because we have a pretty good run defense. Still, this time of year you know you are going to be facing a quality team and it’s going to be a challenge. Durant has beaten the teams they should have beaten this year and their losses have come to some really talented teams including Armwood, who is the No. 1 seed in our region.”
The Cougars are led by senior running back Emmanuel Lee (5-9, 170). The speedster has rushed for 1,034 yards and 13 touchdowns this season. But Durant will mix it up offensively as quarterback Michael Ryan is a dual threat quarterback that is a 58% passer who has thrown for 1,200 yards and ran for another 300 while accounting for 18 total touchdowns. Athlete Damari Styles can hurt opponents in a variety of ways,. He leads the team in receptions (33-386-3 touchdowns); while is averaging more than 17 yards on reverses (5-86). Overall, Durant averages more than five yards per carry.
Durant features a veteran defense that is allowing under 20 points per game. A trio of senior linebackers in Hale Solomon (14.5 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks), Hunter Smith (12 TFL, 6.5 sacks) and Wyatt Zenke (8.5 TFL) form the heart of the Cougar defense; while senior cornerback Jayden Cornelius has intercepted five passes.
In Osceola’s win over Viera, the Kowboys introduced a new wrinkle to its already explosive running game by moving receiver Alijah Jenkins to a wingback spot. The moved paid off as Jenkins ran for more than 100 yards and two touchdowns; while Taevion Swint, Jamarie Williams and Elijah Hickson combined for six touchdowns. Quarterback Cameron West completed 4-of-5 passes for 110 yards and touchdown passes to Swint and Jennkins. Overall, the Kowboy rushing attack gained 329 yards on the ground on 40 carries (8.3 yards per carry).
“We decided to move Alijah inside because we thought it would give us another guy that could break a long run for us at any time and that certainly proved to be the case,” Pinellas said. “It will just give the opposing defense one more player to account for.”
After giving up two touchdowns in the first half, the Osceola defense pitched a shutout in the second half. Jeff Banks had an interception and Pinellas cited the defensive presence of Nathaniel Barrett. “He was all over the field, making several great plays and creating pressure all night.”
An Osceola win Friday puts the Kowboys in next week’s Region 6A-2 final against the winner of the Armwood (110) and Tampa Plant (8-3). If Armwood wins, it would host the regional final; Osceola would host with a Plant upset.
