South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Turner stars as Raiders fend off feisty Western
FORT LAUDERDALE — St. Thomas Aquinas senior quarterback Zion Turner ran for two touchdowns and threw for another and the Raiders’ defense came up with four turnovers in a
31-21 victory over visiting Western on Friday night.
“It wasn’t our best showing,” said Turner, who completed 4 of
8 passes for 106 yards and one TD,
24 yards to Camden Brown. “We got motivated by the early turnovers, but we have a lot of mistakes to correct. We came out with the ‘W’ so I am happy with that.
“A game like this shows all of our weaknesses,” Turner said. “We’ll go back in the film room tomorrow and correct them.”
St. Thomas Aquinas (4-1) capitalized on two fumble recoveries by junior defensive lineman Jason Hammond to grab a 10-0 lead shortly before the game was halted in the second quarter for one hour due to lightning.
Western (2-2) took the opening kickoff and drove from its
20 to the St. Thomas 35 before Hammond picked up a loose ball after a mishandle by junior running back Nelson Walker.
The Raiders wasted little time in converting that turnover into a score as they moved 65 yards in just six plays capped by a 2-yard run by Turner with 4:27 left in the first quarter.
The big play of the drive was a
41-yard toss from Turner to senior wide receiver Brown which gave the Raiders the ball on the 5 to set up Turner’s TD run three plays later.
The Raiders’ defense and Hammond struck again as senior wide receiver Brennan Taranto fumbled and gave St. Thomas the ball on the Western 44. The Raiders’ drive stalled on the Western 11 and sophomore Michael Kern converted a 28-yard field goal with 10:30 remaining in the first half for the 10-0 advantage. Before the Raiders could kick off again, lightning sent the teams to their locker rooms.
“The credit really goes to the guys that caused the fumbles,” Hammond said. “The coaches stress being around the ball and that’s how you make plays. Sitting that hour had us come out a little slow, but we picked it back up. We harp on takeaways and I think we average five takeaways a game.”
Western came out after the delay and drove 80 yards in 11 plays capped by an 8-yard scoring toss from junior quarterback Collin Hurst to senior wide receiver Jullian Lewis. It was the first of two hookups for the duo. Hurst completed a 23-yard scoring toss to Lewis with 1:40 left in the game and threw his third TD of the night with 6 seconds left to senior wideout Tyreik Thorpe from 11 yards out.
Hurst finished the night 24 of
31 for 240 yards and three scores. The Raiders, ranked No. 3 in the state and 16th nationally, are
15-0 in the all-time series against Western dating back to 1984. St. Thomas Aquinas has outscored Western during that time 638-238, including tallying 30 points or more in 12 of the 15 meetings.
St. Thomas Aquinas, winners of a state-record 12 state championships, including the past two and five of the past seven, also received a strong effort from senior running back Anthony Hankerson, who carried 18 times for 106 yards and a score for the Raiders.