Although no Osceola County school won a district championship this year, the post-season hopes of several teams remain alive as the 2026 regular season comes to a close Friday.
St. Cloud (6-3) and Osceola (3-7) remain in contention for at-large bids into the 6A and 5A 32-team brackets that will be announced in two weeks.
The Bulldogs, who finished second in District 6A-5 with a 3-1 record, can boost their resume with a home win Friday against Lake Howell. St. Cloud kept its playoff hopes alive Friday with a narrow 14-7 win over Harmony in the 22nd annual Soldier City Classic.
In Lake Howell (4-4), the Bulldogs will find an opponent that features an explosive offense. Led by quarterback Bryan Mabrey (25 touchdown passes, 5 interceptions), the Silverhawks are a balanced team that average 250 passing yards and 160 rushing yards per game.
“Lake Howell is a really good team that can be explosive on offense,” St. Cloud coach Mike Short said. “Based on our strength of schedule, I believe we will be in the post-season with a win. If not, I’m not so sure so it’s definitely a big game for us. Hopefully we’ll have a big crowd out there supporting us.”
Osceola (3-7) finished its regular season with a hard-fought 16-13 loss at Bartow. But even while finishing 1-4 5A-6 the Kowboys are actually in solid position to grab one of the four available at-large playoff spots in Region 2 thanks to playing in one of the toughest districts in the state (every member is in playoff contention) as well having one of the hardest overall schedules – two factors that weigh highly in the Kowboys favor in the latest MaxPreps rankings used to set the playoff field. The Kowboys playoff position will be even more secure if Lakeland ends up in Open Division of the top eight teams in the state.
“We’re going to practice a couple of times this week with the assumption that we will make the playoffs,” Coach Eric Pinellas said of his team that were on the other end of some questionable calls last week in the road loss to Bartow. “Our offensive line played pretty well last week, as did our defense and Javontay Barnett looked good in his first game at quarterback. If we make the field, we have the ability to compete with anyone in the region.”
Although Gateway (7-2 overall, 2-2 district) has a chance to win eight games for the first time in school history, it has little chance of securing an at-large playoff bid based on the current rankings. The Panthers will host Celebration (1-8) Friday and have already informed FHSAA that they would accept an invitation to the FIT Tournament, which it a separate event for the 16 top-ranked teams from 4A-6A class that are left out of the state tournament.
In limited playing time, Nydrell Thigpen rushed 116 yards and two scores and also had a receiving touchdown in pushing his season rushing total to 1,350 with 19 touchdowns. Johnny Reyes had 132 combined rushing-receiving yards and two scores; while quarterback Aristotle Span Jr. was 8-for-13 passing for 183 yards and two scores and added one rushing touchdown. Defensively, Gateway posted its school record third shutout of the season and can win eight games for the first time in school history.
Head Coach Marlin Roberts said his school notified the FHSAA last week the Panthers would opt in for the Florida Invitational Tournament (FIT) if invited. The top 16 nonplayoff qualifiers in Class 4A-6A get bids.
In other action, Liberty (1-8) will travel to Poinciana (5-4) for the 20th playing of the “Battle of the Boulevard; Nova Lakes (2-7) hosts University (8--1) to conclude its inaugural season, Harmony (2-7) wraps its season at Sebastian River (1-8) and Tohopekaliga (4-5) hopes to get to .500 on the season when it travels to Davenport Ridge (0-8).
Although a rivalry in the truest sense of the word, the Boulevard Series has been a little strange in that the Chargers won the first 15 games (2007-21), then Poinciana won the last four games by a combined score of 176-16. With the FHSAA playoffs out of the cards, the Eagles likely need a win Friday to secure their place in the FIT tournament.
