By: J. Daniel Pearson
By any sense of the word, it was far from artistic football. But that did not keep St. Cloud coach Mike Short from calling the Bulldogs come-from-behind 31-24 win over Tohopekaliga “beautiful,” in a contest where the two teams combined for 10 turnovers (12 if you count recovered on-sides kicks) and were whistled for more than 200 yards in penalties.
The win by the Bulldogs threw the Class 7A, District 10 race into some serious doubt. If Tohopekaliga (4-3, 1-1) can beat Lake Nona (5-3, 2-0) and if St. Cloud (4-4, 1-1) can beat Harmony (1-5, 0-2) next week, it would create a three-way tie for the district championship. In that case, the highest ranked team would be awarded the district title and would advance to the state playoffs.
“Tonight certainly made the district race more interesting, but right now we’re going to enjoy this win. Given the circumstances and the fact they beat us pretty soundly the last two years (41-19 last year and 47-6 in 2022), this is really a great win for our program,” Short said. “This maybe isn’t my favorite win ever but it definitely is up there somewhere.”
In losing to the Tigers the previous two seasons, Short cited turnovers and penalties as the reason his team was not competitive in those games. The first half probably had him thinking “here we go again,” as St. Cloud had four turnovers and lost an on-sides kick in falling behind 24-10.
Things started going bad early for St. Cloud, as Jaxson Hardnett took a handoff on Tohopekaliga’s second play, broke loose up the middle and outran the defense 94-yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
St. Cloud tied it two possessions later on a 19-yard touchdown pass from Logan King to Alex Springs, but the Tigers jumped right back on top with a 69-yard touchdown pass from Sabby Meassick to Emanuel Theagene.
Tohopekaliga recovered the ensuing on-sides kick but St. Cloud came up with a fourth down stop and a 24-yard field goal by Daniel Elizondo cut the gap to 14-10.
Tohopekaliga would then get a field goal of their own off a St. Cloud fumble and after another Bulldog fumble extended the lead to 14 when Meassick hit Theagene on a 70-yard bomb on a third and 14 play. Theagene finished the first half with 188 receiving yards on just three catches and 282 of the Tigers 319 yards of total offense came on a total of just four offensive plays.
“Obviously there was some frustration in the first half, I thought our defense actually played pretty well, but the turnovers and big plays were killing us,” Short said. “We felt if we could cut down on our mistakes, create some turnovers and make some big plays of our own, we could get back into the game.”
And that is exactly what happened.
St. Cloud opened the third quarter by recovering an on-sides kick. Three plays later King connected with Springs on a 49-yard touchdown pass to make it 24-17. On Tohopekaliga’s next play from scrimmage, Hardnett fumbled and St. Cloud recovered. King needed just two plays to find Springs again – this time from 37 yards out to tie the game 24-24.
Both teams would record stops, but on Tohopekaliga’s third possession of the half, Bryce Williams stepped in front of a Meassick pass and returned an interception 26-yards for a touchdown and a 31-24 lead.
The 21 unanswered points by St. Cloud in the first seven minutes of the third quarter would be the last points of the game.
The Bulldogs defense would recover a Toho fumble as the Tigers were threatening to score, would later force a punt, and then intercept Meassick for a third time with 8:13 remaining in the game.
From there, King would lead St. Cloud on a 12-play drive and that ended in a pair of kneel downs and ran out the clock. The key plays in the drive came on a 12-yard scramble by King on a third and nine and two third-down runs by Springs of nine and seven yards to pick up two more key first downs.
In all, St. Cloud held Tohopekaliga scoreless in the second half and limited them to 73 net offensive yards.
For the game, King finished 15 of 29 for 304 yards. Seven went to Springs for 169 yards and the three scores. TJ Griffin led the Bulldogs with 95 yards rushing on 15 carries. For the Tigers, Meassick was 13 for 27 for 239 yards, two scores and three interceptions. Theagene had five of those catches for 203 yards. Hardnett had 125 yards rushing for the Tigers but left the game one play into the third quarter with an injury.
Paradiso was philosophical after the loss. “We did some good things tonight and had a chance to put the game away in the first half. But you can’t commit five turnovers and commit the penalties we did and expect to win. We lost a lot of seniors in key positions from last year and we have had to use a lot of young guys in their place. We’re 4-3 with two games to play and hopefully this can be a learning experience for our young guys.”
In other action Friday night, Poinciana went to 5-2 on the season with a 28-13 win over Gateway (3-5) and Osceola won a 14-6 slugfest over Apopka to move to 6-2 on the season.
Scoring Summary
Tohopekaliga 14 10 0 0 — 24
St. Cloud 7 3 21 0 –31
T: Jaxson Hardnett 94 Run (Taylor Dormes kick)
SC: Alex Springs 19 pass from Logan King (Daniel Elizando kick)
T: Emanuel Theagene 69 pass from Sabby Meassick (Dormes kick)
SC: Elizando 24 FG
T: Dormes 23-FG
T: Theagene 70 pass from Meassick (Dormes kick)
SC: Springs 49 pass from King (Elizando kick)
SC: Springs 37 pass from King (Elizando kick)
SC: Bryce Williams 26 Interception Return (Elizando kick)
