Bragging Rights on the Line: Bulldogs and Longhorns Clash in Soldier City Classic

By: J. Daniel Pearson
Positively Osceola

With its 100-year history, Osceola-St. Cloud may carry the moniker “The Game,” but the Bulldogs real rivalry game takes place this Friday night when Harmony comes to town for the 21^st edition of the Soldier City Classic.

Without question, the game has become the most important regular season game for both schools. When Harmony opened its doors in 2005, it siphoned off a good portion of St. Cloud’s student body for its first graduating class.

Former St. Cloud coach and current athletics director Bryan Smart explains the intensity of the rivalry this way. “When Harmony opened, they took a lot of our students, which included a bunch of good athletes. But also keep in mind, many of these guys grew up playing youth sports together. The rivalry is there in every sport. Add to that, each year these two schools are usually fighting it out for the OBC All-Sports and All-Academic trophies. This has been a close, hard-fought series and it has all the makings of what a true rivalry is all about.”

With two straight wins, St. Cloud leads the all-time series 11-9-0. But Harmony’s last win, a 44-0 blowout in 2022, continues to motivate Bulldogs coach Mike Short. “That was an ugly game and is still fresh in my memory,” Short says. “To this day the memory of that game serves to motivate and inspire our coaches and players to work for better things.”

Before taking a two-year hiatus to become Athletics Director at Tohopekaliga, Don Simon was the head coach of the Longhorns for that 44-0 game. He returned to Harmony in 2025 as head coach and has the Longhorns sitting at 4-3 this season following a 26-16 win over Celebration last week.

“Records simply do not matter in this game. We have neighboring schools that have developed an incredible rivalry between them and anything can happen,” Simon said. “They (St. Cloud) are a really talented team and we will have no margin for error on Friday night. We need to play our best game of the year on offense, defense and special teams.”

About the only thing not in play Friday night is the district title.

The Bulldogs clinched the District 10, 7A title with a 44-21 win over Tohopekaliga to move to 6-2 overall and 2-0 in the district. The winner of Friday’s Tohopekaliga (4-4, 1-1) – Lake Nona (5-3, 1-1) would tie for the district title if Harmony defeats St. Cloud, but the Bulldogs would still take the crown based on the first tie-breaker – head-to-head competition.

While winning the district title and earning an FHSAA State Playoff bid is huge, Short added that this week’s game with Harmony is even bigger in his mind. “It’s our version of the ‘Backyard Brawl.’ There kids grew up together, played youth sports together and this is for bragging rights for the year. You could win just one game all season long but if it’s this one, it would take all the sting out of it.”

He added that he expects a dog fight on Friday night. “There’s no question what Harmony is going to want to do. He (Longhorns coach Don Simon) loves to run the ball. They are going to try to play keep-away and limit our possessions.”

The St. Cloud defense could be a key. Led by its secondary, the Bulldogs have limited opponents to just over 12 points per game during their current three-game winning streak. Bryce Williams had two pick-six interceptions against Tohopekaliga.

The St. Cloud-Harmony game is not the only big rivalry game this week. On Friday night, Poinciana (2-6) will host Liberty (0-8) in the 21^st Battle of the Boulevard. Similar to the St. Cloud-Harmony situation, a large portion of the Poinciana student body moved over to Liberty when that school opened in 2007. The schools are located just six miles apart and athletes on both sides grew up competing in the same youth sports programs – creating a natural rivalry.

Until recently, the Chargers were dominant in the series, winning the first 15 games – including 11 games by 25 or more points. The tide shifted with a 56-0 win by Poinciana in 2022 and the Eagles have now won three straight – outscoring Liberty 138-16 in the process.

While neither team has had the type of season they envisioned, Poinciana coach Taron Mallard says this game remains immensely important to both teams. Although the Eagles will be favored, Mallard added ““The path to victory is pretty simple, we just need to play a lot better than we have the last two weeks and try to win every quarter.”

Several other interesting games dot the county schedule this week.

An injury plagued Osceola (6-2) struggled to clinch its district title with two close wins over Melbourne and Viera, but came alive last week with a big 50-7 win over Apopka last week, where Jakari Watson rushed for 114 yards and three touchdowns on just four carries and Ja’Kai Pratt returned two fumbles for scores.

Still, the Kowboys are without several key players. It’s top two running backs Jeff Sinophat (concussion) and Jaxson Hardnett (ankle) remained sidelined against Apopka and center Jaeden Bellamy (knee) is lost for the season. With its other center on the shelf, Osceola had to play sophomore Jonell Mercado at the position – his first varsity action of his career.

“We’re like a MASH unit,” Coach Eric Pinellas said. “At Thursday’s walkthrough, I looked over and saw 10 starters or key contributors sitting in the stands. So given the injuries, I was pleased at the way we played.”

This week, the Kowboys host Lake Wales (6-2) in their final home game of the 2025 season. Lake Wales hung with the state runner-up Kowboys last year before falling 28-17. This season, their only two losses were to state power Jones and really solid Auburndale (6-2) team. They have claimed wins this season over state power Sanford Seminole and District 10, 4A champion Clearwater. “They are playing a freshman quarterback and have struggled a bit on offense this year,” Pinellas said. “But they are pretty stout on defense and have a D-1 safety who is really good. We expect a challenge.”

Second-place in the district and a possible at-large playoff berth could await the winner of Friday’s Tohopekaliga-Lake Nona game. Lake Nona (5-3, 1-1) currently is ranked eighth in the region; while the Tigers are 10^th. Tohopekaliga would most likely need to win this week and next week against a solid Avon Park (5-3) to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Celebration (1-7, 0-2) wraps up district play on Friday by traveling to Dr. Phillips (5-2, 2-0). The Storm played Harmony to a 10-10 first-half tie on Friday night before dropping a 26-16 decision. Landon Yaw threw for 215 yards in the game, including a touchdown pass to Cameron Bizzack. Kaseem Shelley and Nick Edouard had interceptions. Fresh off the win against Poinciana, Gateway (4-5) finally hits it bye week.

In the Panthers win over Poinciana, Gateway had to overcome a 8-7 fourth quarter deficit. In the game, sophomore Nydrell Thigpen went over 100 yards, scored two touchdowns and became Gateway’s first 1000-yard rusher since Philip Bangura in 2019. Gateway also intercepted six passes in the game and Dory Thimote scored on touchdown reception.

Week 9 Results

St. Cloud 44, Tohopekaliga 21

Osceola 50, Apopka 7

Harmony 26, Celebration 16

Gateway 19, Poinciana 8

Westwood 40, Liberty 7

Week 10 Schedule

Harmony at St. Cloud, 7:30 p.m.

Lake Wales at Osceola, 7 p.m.

Lake Nona at Tohopekaliga, 7 p.m.

Liberty at Poinciana, 7 p.m.

Celebration at Dr. Phillips, 7 p.m.