South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Raiders defense stellar in 7A first-round rout
FORT LAUDERDALE — Anthony Hankerson rushed for
124 yards and three touchdowns to lift St. Thomas past Atlantic 43-7 in the first round of the Class 7A playoffs.
Quarterback Zion Turner added two rushing touchdowns, while the Raiders defense held Atlantic to just 12 yards of offense in the first half, providing numerous short fields for the offense to work with.
“Our defense and special teams were great, they put us in great field position and our offense executed well,” said St. Thomas coach Roger Harriott. “We just need to clean up some of the penalties that have been debilitating our offense a little bit, but we look at adversity as another weapon and I love the way our guys respond.”
Atlantic (5-6) started drives deep in their own territory all night, failing to make it past the
40-yard line in the first half, and the Eagles didn’t reach midfield until two minutes left in the third quarter.
That allowed St. Thomas to start every drive either in Atlantic territory or near midfield in the first half.
On the Raiders’ second possession of the game, they started at the Atlantic 24 after a 10-yard punt. Hankerson needed just two carries for his first touchdown of the game, scoring from 5 yards out.
After recording a safety to take an 8-0 lead, St. Thomas found the end zone again as Turner scored on a 1-yard run, which was set up by Camden Brown’s diving 50-yard reception on third down.
Turner scored again, this time from 17 yards out, after Atlantic was forced to punt from its own 12. Hankerson added one more score with four seconds left before halftime, giving St. Thomas a 29-0 lead at the break.
“It’s about trusting the schemes and the offensive lineman to be in the right spot. I made them look good and they made me look good,” said Hankerson. “The defense stepped up today and gave up perfect field position.”
St. Thomas cashed in one final
time as backup running back Xavier Terrell scored on a 50-yard run. Atlantic finally got on the board as Federick Gaskin hauled in a 28-yard reception with about six minutes remaining.
St. Thomas (10-1) advances to host Miramar, a 28-20 winner over Doral Academy on Friday, in the regional semifinals next Friday at 7:30 p.m.