Aquinas and Heritage seek historic marks at state finals

No Broward County team has ever won three consecutive state football championships.

That can change on Friday night when St. Thomas Aquinas takes the field at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium to take on Tampa Plant at 8 p.m. The Raiders know what’s at stake. “The whole team is into it,” said senior linebacker Drew White, a team leader who will be playing in his first championship game after missing last season’s title game with a foot injury. “I think that brings a lot of us motivation.”

A third straight championship is only one of a combination of possible laudatory numbers for the Raiders should they win Friday. Another state title would make them 4-for-5 and 5-for-7 and 7-for-10 over an impressive decade-long run. The nine-time state champions could become the second team in the state with Jacksonville Bolles to reach double-digit state championship victories.

“To do something we’ve never done before at St. Thomas,” said senior running back Mike Epstein, who missed last season with a torn ACL, “would be huge.”

Epstein, an Illinois commit, has had a tremendous bounce-back year, rushing for 1,102 yards and scoring 19 total touchdowns

— mostly playing just the first half of games. He scored six touchdowns combined in St. Thomas’ previous two wins.

St. Thomas has won its four playoff games by a combined score of 168-18. But it’s the two losses — in Week 1 to Booker T. Washington and in September in a triple-overtime heartbreaker to two-time defending national champ Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas — that team members say has helped drive them.

“All my brothers have gone through so much together. Adversity hit us twice this season and we bounced back,” senior offensive lineman Zack Sweeney said. “It really took the team coming together multiple times.”

While coach Roger Harriott understands the significance, he also knows focusing on it isn’t what will make the Raiders victorious Friday night.

“The idea of us winning a three-peat from a historical standpoint is obviously an amazing accomplishment,” Harriott said. “However, our players and coaches are focused on winning one play at a time.”

Dynasty dreams

American Heritage had a shot last season to win its third straight state championship, but fell in the regional semifinals to district foe Hallandale.

Now the Patriots are back in the Class 5A title game — on Friday at 3 p.m. — set to face Ponte Vedra.

While Heritage is a perfect 13-0 coming in, the Patriots did have to overcome adversity of its own in the preseason when doubters crept up after a 27-7 kickoff classic loss to Booker T. Washington.

“After the Booker T. game, there was a lot of talk on the outside that we weren’t as good as people were saying,” coach Patrick Surtain said. “We didn’t let it get to us.” Instead, Heritage ran through a challenging schedule that included wins against New Jersey power Don Bosco Prep, Miami Northwestern, Cardinal Gibbons (twice) and on a trip to Colquitt County in Georgia.

“We’ve been in every type of situation,” Surtain said. “That’s why we played that type of schedule, so we come in prepared.”

A potential 3-of-4 run would only be the third in Broward history — the previous two by Aquinas (last year and 2007-10).