Friday's slate includes Osceola welcoming Lakeland
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T.J. Griffin, shown in August’s Kickoff Classic, rushed for touchdown and intercepted a pass in St. Cloud’s 42-7 win over Liberty Friday. The Bulldogs travel to Tohopekaliga Friday for a District 4S 10 clash. PHOTO/KATIE WILLIAMS
It’s not too often when state semifinalists from the prior year meet — and it’s not the marquee matchup of the week in the county.
Friday’s game between defending state champion Lakeland and Osceola – the Dreadnaughts won, 14-7, in the Class 4S game last year – may take a slight backseat this week to the St. Cloud-Tohopekaliga matchup, a game that could play a key role in the race for the District 4S-10 championship.
The Tigers (2-0) will host the Bulldogs (1-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday; both teams are coming off of big wins last week.
At Winter Garden, the Tigers were expected to be tested against Foundation Academy, a solid smallschool private program. Instead, the scored the first 35 points and cruised to a 49-21 win against the Lions.
Sophomore quarterback Sabby Meassick threw for 536 yards and seven touchdowns. Three receivers caught for over 100 yards: Julian Nasco (13-175-3 TD), Naeem Woulard (5-130-1) and Churandy Duval (9-1293), who also rushed for 103 yards. Meassick now has 13 touchdown passes and one interception in two games.
St. Cloud is also coming off a big win, jumping out to a 14-0 lead in the opening two minutes and cruising to a 42-7 win over Liberty. The Bulldogs dominated in all phases of the game. Logan King completed 10 of 18 passes for 174 yards to back a running game that rushed for 265 yards. St. Cloud forced four turnovers, including a pick six by Bryce Williams.
A year ago, Tohopekaliga pummeled St. Cloud, 47-6.
“I don’t think we came in with a very good game plan last year and that was definitely on me,” Bulldogs coach Mike Short said. “We had some early turnovers, fell behind the chains and started to play reckless. I would like to think we are better both offensively and defensively this year and will play a smarter game.”
Still, Short knows it will not be an easy task. “They have both speed and skill on the outside and their running back (Duval) is a load. They are really good at mixing it up. Solid tackling will be a key for us, we got to keep their quick passes to three or four yards, not let them turn them into 15 or 20 yards gains.”
Tigers Coach Anthony Paradiso said that he was thankful his team finally got back on the field after a Week 2 weather cancellation and said his team would continue to do what it has done since his arrival last year.
“On a week-to-week basis, we really don’t pay attention to the opponent, rather we worry about what we are doing. The mantra for us remains the same, we want to get better each day and each week.”
Even with that key district game going on, it is hard to ignore a Lakeland-Osceola matchup. Both teams come into the game with somewhat-deceiving losing records; Lakeland’s (1-2) losses have come to Miami power Norland and nationally-ranked St. Joseph Prep from Philadelphia.
Osceola finds itself at 0-3, but it has to be noted that the Kowboys losses came against state powers Treasure Coast, Seminole and Jones – three perennial playoff teams. In the 28-20 loss to Jones on Friday, the Kowboys fell behind 21-0 but rallied back.
The lack of wins can be attributed to Osceola’s brutal schedule that includes seven postseason teams from a year ago, an ungodly amount of injuries — star junior running back Taevion Swint has yet to play — and youth at key spots.
“We’ve give up a lot of big plays this year and made more than our share of silly mistakes. But on a lot of them, you can point out that those mistakes were the result of a young player missing an assignment. Because of injuries we are playing a lot of sophomores and they are learning on the job,” Osceola coach Eric Pinellas said. “We slowly starting to get healthy and hopefully by the midway point we will be better.”
In other action, Liberty (0-3) will host Davenport (0-2) Friday as both teams will be seeking their first win. Chargers coach Dee Hart said he was pleased with the fight of his young team despite the lopsided loss to St. Cloud last week.
“We’re were down 28-0 and the game was essentially out of reach, but we executed a really nice long drive to score,” Hart said. “Our kids are buying into what we are trying to establish and that is the first step of the process to turning this thing around.”
Gateway (0-2) opens up District 3S-8 play this week at undefeated Auburndale (2-0) on the road. The Panthers were defeated 51-18 last week by Orange Park’s Ridgeview. Coach Marlin Roberts cited the play of running backs Chris Charity and Deshawn Reese; as well as linebacker Tristian Martinez in the loss.
“We are extremely young but we have some talented players,” Roberts noted. “The key will be for these kids to grow in the program. Over the past several years we had a lot of good players transfer out for various reasons. If we can keep this core together, we have a chance to grow.”
Celebration (0-3) will be looking for its first win this weekend when they host Space Coast (0-3) at 7:30 p.m. Both teams are young and have struggled to put points on the board, as Celebration has been shutout three times, including last week’s 49-0 loss to Titusville; while Space Coast has been outscored 116-13.
Poinciana (0-2) will also be looking for its first win when they travel to Horizon (3-0). After going 2-8 in their inaugural season in 2021, the Hawks have won 10 of their last 13 games and come into the contest with momentum.
The Eagles dropped a 43-20 decision to Hardee County last week. Offensively, the Eagles passing game was strong; Cameron Brown threw for 296 yards and three touchdowns. Ernest Nunn caught five for 161 yards and two scores, and freshman Chance Frazier caught a 75-yard scoring pass.
Coach Randy Beeken said he anticipates a tough game against Horizon. “We moved the ball okay, but we certainly did not play very well on defense (last week),” he said. “We are making some changes on both sides of the ball. Horizon is as good as their 3-0 record indicates. Do I think we can play with them? Yes. Do I think we can win? Yes. But we are going to have to fix the errors we have been making on both sides of the ball and play a lot better than we have been in the first two games.”
A young Harmony team (1-2) reaches its bye week after a 47-0 loss to Palm Bay. They return to action next Friday with a home game against Wiregrass Ranch at 7 p.m.
