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Osceola's defense swarmed Thursday, here bottling up an Edgewater tackler, as it shut out the Eagles and DeLand Bulldogs in two halves of spring football. PHOTO/KEN JACKSON -
Osceola's Taevion Swint breaks clear for a 64-yard touchdown run in Thursday's spring game against Edgewater. PHOTO/KEN JACKSON
The spring football games for Osceola and Poinciana Thursday night brought an end to the 2023-24 seasons, as graduations go on a couple miles away at the Silver Spurs Arena and students look to enjoy final couple of days of school.
Poinciana's Cameron Brown ran for a touchdown and threw for two others in Coach Taron Mallard's debut operating the Eagles, who lost 30-20 at Horizon.
"Honestly we're right where I wanted us to be finishing up the spring," new Eagles Coach Taron Mallard said. "Our Red and Blue (intersquad game) was just as important to us as the spring game."
And it was a good night for the Kowboys, who pitched shutouts in halves against name-brand Central Florida programs. Osceola beat Edgewater, 7-0, and DeLand, 14-0.
While Coach Eric Pinellas committed to the pass with rising junior quarterback Camren West, the Kowboys asserted themselves, as usual, on the ground, and with a physical defense.
UCF commit running back Taevion Swint showed why he’s special, speeding through the Eagle and Bulldog defenses. Thanks to touchdown runs of 60 yards against Edgewater and 24 and 64 yards against DeLand (and a 39-yarder in which he stepped out of bounds), he ran for 201 yards on seven carries.
“Even better than that, we had four offensive linemen making their first starts,” Pinellas said. “We know we’re going to be young on offense. After the half against Edgewater we knew DeLand wants to play ball control so we wanted to pound it on the ground and do the same thing.
It was big plays from the defense that kept the Eagles and Bulldogs out of the end zone. The Kowboys stopped Edgewater on fourth down three times – twice in the red zone – and forced three DeLand turnovers. Safety Jakyri Watson picked off a pass and recovered a fumble and Jamario Bradford also intercepted a pass late with DeLand driving.
A defensive line missing three potential starters got sacks from Amier Clark and Randy Jean Charles, linebackers Robert Mikal-Lee and Luis Figueroa limited the running game, and Nathaniel Barrett, Watts, Isiah Brutus, Jeffrey Banks and Bradford broke up a number of passes and kept the secondary as a no-fly zone despite allowing Edgewater some chunk passing plays that ultimately signified nothing on the scoreboard.
Pinellas said that the Kowboys, coming off a 4-6 season, admittedly against a ultra-difficult schedule, were looking to make a statement Thursday.
“Last year was an anomaly. We don’t make excuses but we were never a fully-healthy team,” he said. “We’ve had a very intense May and the kids came out prepared for this.”
Coaches from UCF. Marshall and Penn State were on hand at Osceola Thursday.
