By:  J. Daniel Pearson
Positively Osceola

Big plays and penalties proved too much to overcome as the St. Cloud Bulldogs (6-4) saw their hopes for an “at-large” FHSAA playoff bid come to end with a 37-22 loss to Lake Howell (5-4) during senior night at Tom Gannerelli Field.

Quarterback Brycen Mabrey threw for 318 yards and four touchdowns.  His totals included scoring strikes of 59 and 70 yards to Dexter Lee and a 47-yarder to Jayvon Funnye. He added 14-yard touchdown pass to Geron Miller and accounted for a fifth touchdown on a 10-yard run.

“Too many big plays and too many mistakes all night,” St. Cloud coach Mike Short said.  “A lot of the mistakes were self-inflicted, including a roughing the kicker penalty on a punt. We got behind early and were playing catch-up all night.”

That early deficit came after a deep ball TD pass to Funnye was followed by a two-point conversion.  On Lake Howell’s next possession, they went 70 yards on 10 plays with Mabrey calling his own number on a third and eight from the 10.  The subsequent two-point conversion made it 16-0. That drive was aided on a facemask penalty on St. Cloud, that negated a 10-yard quarterback sack.

St. Cloud would battle back on the next series, as a big kick return from Matthew Blenman set the Bulldogs up at the Silverhawks 44.  Eli Manning broke off a big 28-yard run and two plays later he carried it in from the eight to cut the gap to 16-7.

Lake Howell looked to take control of the game with 1:26 remaining in the half.  On its first play from scrimmage, Mabrey rolled left but threw screen back to the right, where Lee was all alone. He gathered the ball in and ran untouched 59 yards for a score.

Still, the Bulldogs were able to narrow the gap to 23-14 at the half.  Quarterback Jeremiah Lattier hit four short passes and with time expiring, hooked up with Blenman for 47 yards and a touchdown.

Two second half plays proved to be the Bulldogs downfall.

After taking the second half kickoff, running back Amir Jones appeared to clearly fumble with St. Cloud recovering on the Silverhawk 30.  But the officials met and first ruled he was down by contact and after protests from the St. Cloud sideline said it was an inadvertent whistle and Lake Howell retained possession.

Although they would not score, they kept the ball for 12 plays and ran almost nine minutes off the game clock.

The second play came after Eli Manning’s second touchdown run of the game – this time from 11-yards out – had reduced the Lake Howell lead to 23-21.  After the Silverhawks picking up a couple of first downs, St. Cloud was called for unnecessary roughness on a tackle of a running back. The 15-yard penalty – St. Cloud’s 12th of the night  – put the ball on the 19.  After an illegal substitution penalty on the Bulldogs moved it to the 15, Mabrey hit Miller for a touchdown to make it a eight-point lead 5:07 remaining, 31-23,

“I asked the official about the penalty and was told ‘he tackled the Lake Howell runner too hard’,” Short said of the penalty.  “I asked if that was even a thing when tackling a running back and he just walked away.”

Still, a kick out of bounds, followed by 35-yard pass from Lattier to Blenman, put St. Cloud in scoring position at the 30 with a chance to tie with a TD and two-point conversion.  But an errant snap never reached Lattier and Lake Howell recovered.  Two plays later, Marbrey hit Lee, who was streaking over the middle.  He got the corner and raced 70 yards for a score.

Following the game, Short said he did not feel the season was over.  “We opted in for the Florida Invitational Tournament (FIT) last week,” Short said.  “I think we will be ranked high enough to get it in. but we will have to wait and see.”  The FIT is a 16-team tournament for teams in classes 4A to 6A, who do not receive playoff bids.

In other county action on Friday night, Harmony (3-7) finished its season on a winning note with a 44-7 win over Sebastian River.  Gateway (8-2) reached eight wins for the first time in school history with a 42-6 walkover victory against Celebration (1-9); Poinciana (6-4) won a fifth straight Battle of the Boulevard over Liberty (1-9), 35-0; Tohopekaliga finished the regular season at .500 (5-5) with a convincing 39-0 win over Davenport Ridge Community and Nova Lakes (2-8) completed its inaugural season with a 45-6 road loss to University (9-1).

Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 — Total

Lake Howell 8 15 0 14– 37

St. Cloud 0 14 0 8 — 22

Scoring Summary

LH:  Jayvon Funnye 47 pass from Brycen Mabrey (Geron Miller run), 8-0

LH:  Mabrey 10 run (Amir Jones run), 16-0

SC:  Eli Manning 8 run (Adriel Gomez kick), 16-7

LH:  Dexter Lee 59 pass from Mabrey (Daniel Esteban kick), 23-7

SC:  Matthew Blenman 47 pass from Jeremiah Lattier (Gomez kick), 23-14

SC: Eli Manning 11 run (Lattier pass Blenman), 23-22

LH:  Miller 14 pass from Mabrey (Esteban kick), 30-22

LH:  Lee 70 pass from Mabrey (Esteban kick), 37-22