By: J. Daniel Pearson
There was some good news and some bad, as three Osceola County football teams made up district football games on Tuesday night after Hurricane Milton wiped out action last week.
First the good news; Osceola traveled to Viera and pounded out a 49-9 win over the Hawks to secure the Class 6A, District 5 championship. The win, Osceola’s third district title in a row, ensures the Kowboys (5-2, 2-0) will make it to the FHSAA playoffs for a 15th consecutive year.
In winning for the 54th time in their last 55 district games, Osceola saw Alijah Jenkins return the opening kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown. They would jump out to a 14-0 lead and never trail, although the Hawks rallied with a touchdown and field goal before the half to make it a relatively close game at intermission, 21-9.
“Give them some credit, they operated their RPO (run-pass option) offense fairly effectively in the first half and they caught us off guard a little,” Osceola coach Eric Pinellas said. “But we settled down defensively in the second half and our running game dominated.”
Taevion Swint continued his outstanding season. Despite dealing with a nagging shoulder injury all season that has seen his workload limited, he tallied 100 yards rushing and scored four touchdowns in the game. The Osceola defense also recorded a pick six.
Things did not go as well for Harmony (1-6, 0-2) as they dropped a district game to Lake Nona (4-3, 2-0).
As has been the case several times this season, Harmony got a solid effort out of its defense in the first half – only to see them wear down in the second half.
Lake Nona turned two first half turnovers into 10 points and took a 13-0 lead at the half despite gaining just over 100 yards of total offense.
The Lions took the opening kickoff and drove 50 yards, but the Longhorns defense held and surrendered a 47-yard field goal by Trey Butkowski.
But Harmony would throw an interception and fumble on its next two possessions and the Lions took advantage of the short field as Butkowski botted a 29-yard field goal and Malik Allen scored on a 18-yard run.
Meanwhile Harmony simply could not gain any traction on offense – gaining just eight yards of total offense on 18 plays as Lake Nona took a 13-0 lead into intermission.
Harmony defense looked exhausted in the second half. Lake Nona gained 177 yards and scored two touchdowns on a pair of Michael Dove scoring runs. Harmony’s defense did limit the damage by coming up with an interception and fumble recovery and also recorded two other defensive stops in the second half.
Still, the Longhorns could not muster much on offense. They did not cross midfield until the final play of the third quarter and when lost yardage is factored in, gained just 42 yards of total offense on 37 plays for the game.
“In any season, the offensive line is always the last thing to come together and we have been snake bit this year with injuries,” Harmony coach Nick Lippert said. “We have not had the same starting five together since the first week of the season. We get one guy back on the offensive line and get two hurt, we get two back and lose another one. It’s been that way all year and has been extremely frustrating. But we don’t like making excuses. We have to get better and I have to do a better job coaching.”
In Tuesday other make-up game, Celebration lost a hard-fought district game to Olympia, 17-6.
Harmony returns to action Friday night at Celebration (2-5). In other county action Friday, Tohopekaliga (4-2, 1-0) hopes to keep its district hopes alive in a road game against St. Cloud; Poinciana (4-2) hosts Gateway (3-4) in a battle of independents; while Liberty has a bye week.
