By: J. Daniel Pearson
Positively Osceola
Published 9/13/2025
For well over a half, St. Cloud appeared poised to finally end Osceola’s dominance of “The Game.”
But the Kowboys responded with 38 unanswered points in the second half to cruise to a 44-7 win in the 102nd edition of series—the fifth oldest in the state of Florida. It was Osceola’s 15th consecutive on the field win (21st if you count a 41-35 St. Cloud win in 2015 that was later forfeited) and pushed the Kowboys all-time lead to 70-28-4.
It could be argued that St. Cloud was the better team for the first 25 minutes of the game. They stopped the potent Osceola offense on all five first half possessions and only a 93-yard interception return for touchdown by Ja’Mario Bradford midway through the second quarter gave Osceola a narrow 6-0 halftime lead.
On the second play of the third quarter, Bryce Williams pulled in a tipped pass from Jeremiah Lattier and the 65-yard touchdown gave St. Cloud a 7-6 lead at the 11:04 mark of the third.
At that point, St. Cloud appeared to have all the momentum and led Osceola in total offense, 162-114.
“Things were really going well at that point. Our guys were flying around and playing with a lot of confidence,” St. Cloud coach Michael Short said. “Had we not thrown the pick six there was a chance we could have been up by two scores in the third quarter and who knows what happens then?”
But on the Williams touchdown play that should have given St. Cloud momentum appeared to light a fire under the entire Osceola team instead.
From that point forward, the Kowboys dominated every aspect of the game. It started on the ensuing kickoff with Osceola driving 69 yards to retake the lead 12-7 on a Jeffrey Sinphat’s 30-yard touchdown grab from Amaree Rutland.
Osceola’s offense converted a quick three-and-out from its defense into another quick score, with Jaxson Hardnett doing the honors on a 16-yard touchdown run. Osceola’s defense smothered St. Cloud with another three-and-out to set up another short field. This time it was Sinophat running it over from the one to up the lead to 28-7.
Things would go from bad to worse for St. Cloud on the ensuing kickoff, as the Dogs fumbled and Nathaniel Barnett scooped up the loose ball and returned it 30 yards for another score to put the game out of reach.
Bradford would cap the scoring with his second pick six of the game – this time from 30 yards out – and the two point conversion made it 44-7 and started a running clock under FHSAA mercy rules.
“I told our guys that St. Cloud would come into this game with intentions to win,” Osceola coach Eric Pinellas said. “I guess it took to the third quarter until they got the message. Overall, other than a few broken plays I thought our defense played really well today. Penalties, turnovers and mistakes hurt us offensively in the first half, but then we started coming around.”
For the game, Osceola outgained St. Cloud in total offense 287-191. Its defense forced three turnovers and had six sacks. Lattier was 15 for 32 for 221 yards but counting the sacks, St. Cloud had a -30 yards rushing.
In other games around the county, Harmony went to 3-1 on the season with a big 39-6 win over Clewiston. Gateway fell to 1-3 with a hard-fought 12-7 loss to Lake Region; Evans went to 3-1 with a 31-0 win over Poinciana, and Liberty lost 60-6 to Winter Springs (3-1). Celebration and Tohopekaliga were off.
Scoring Summary
St. Cloud 0 0 7 0 –7
Osceola 0 6 14 24 –44
Second Quarter
O: Ja’Mario Bradford 93 interception return (kick failed)
Third Quarter
SC: Bryce Williams 65 pass from Jeremiah Lattier (Esteban Melendez kick)
O: Jeffrey Sinophat 30 pass from Amaree Rutland (Pass Failed)
O: Jaxson Hardnett 16 run (Rutland pass to Hardnett)
Fourth Quarter
O: Sinophat 1 run (Allijah Jenkins run)
O: Nathaniel Barnett 30 Fumble Return (Hardnett run)
O: Bradford 40 Interception Return (Javontay Barnett run)
