By: J. Daniel Pearson
For Positively Osceola
The recipe for Osceola’s win over Durant was not particularly complicated.
Start with an awesome running attack, combine with a dominant defensive effort and toss in some outstanding special teams play and it was the formula for success in the Kowboys 35-6 win over Durant at Markus Paul Stadium Friday night!
With the victory, Osceola’s seventh in a row, the Kowboys (10-2) now travel to Seffner (Fla.), where they will meet #1 seed Armwood (12-0) for the Class 6A, Region 2 Championship next Friday night. Armwood needed two fourth quarter touchdowns, including one in the final minute, to slip by Plant, 21-17, in their semifinal game.
“A lot of credit needs to go to our defense and our coordinator Brad Lennox,” Osceola Coach Eric Pinellas said. “They really did an outstanding job shutting them down all night. Brad told me that he noticed something on tape about their kicking game and that he thought we could exploit. In fact, he even mentioned that he thought we could get a couple of blocked kicks.”
Osceola‘s first two drives in the game ended on a missed field goal and a punt, but after that they scored touchdowns on five consecutive possessions to take a 35-0 lead.
It was the special teams that made a huge difference on three of those scores. Osceola blocked two punts in the first half and also tackled punter Isaiah Sawyer on a third attempt on his own 10 to set up three first half touchdowns.
After the kicking game mistakes, those short drives came on a 20-yard run by Jeff Sinophat, a five-yarder by Taevion Swint and one-yard plunge by Elijah Hickson.
Even though Osceola took advantage of that field position (seven of their first half possessions had an average starting position of the Cougar 36-yard line), the Durant defense offered little resistance to the Kowboys running game. On the other two scoring possessions that did not involve a kicking breakdown by Durant, Swint broke off a 49-yard touchdown run and Sinophat added a 35-yard run.
Hickson’s score at the 5-minute mark of the second quarter insured the second half would be played under the Mercy Rule, triggering an automatic running clock.
That running clock essentially limited the teams to two possessions each in the second half.
Durant was able to avoid the shutout when Jayden Cornelius intercepted a Camren West pass and returned it 82 yards to the Osceola 10. Three plays later, Cornelius ran it over from the one to make it 35-6.
Cornelius’ touchdown was the lone bright spot for the Cougars’ offense, which managed just 87 net yards and three first downs on 33 plays in the game. Durant played most of the game without their starting quarterback Michael Ryan, who was injured a week earlier in their quarterfinal game. Still Osceola shut down their opponent’s other playmakers. Emmanuel Lee, who rushed for over 1000 yards this season, was held to 14 yards on nine carries by the Kowboys defense.
Meanwhile, Swint and Sinophat combined for 238 rushing yards and four touchdowns on just 15 carries. The two broke off six runs of 20 or more yards. Osceola finished with 306 yards of total offense on 35 plays.
“We wanted to start out the game fast and that’s why we elected to receive,” Pinellas said. “But we stopped ourselves on the first two drives with a couple of mistakes. Defensively, we knew if they had to go to their backup quarterback (Cornelius) he would have a hard time moving the ball against us in the wildcat.”
