Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Miami Central rallies in 4th
St. Thomas Aquinas falls in powerhouse matchup. 1,
FORT LAUDERDALE — In a battle of Miami-Dade and Broward’s best, the southern county’s champion came out ahead.
Miami Central traveled up to Fort Lauderdale to face St. Thomas Aquinas in a matchup of two nationally ranked South Florida powerhouses and beat Aquinas 43-27 in a back-and-forth affair Friday night.
“We left a lot of opportunities out there on the field,” Aquinas coach Roger Harriott said. “Central did a great job of capitalizing on some of our deficiencies tonight.”
The visiting Rockets (4-1), ranked 11th and 18th in a pair of MaxPreps national polls, got out to an early lead over Aquinas (4-1), ranked seventh and sixth in the same polls.
Central got on the board on a keeper by senior quarterback Maurice Underwood. The senior quarterback scoring touchdowns would become a running theme Friday night, as he punched in four scores on the ground and completed another over the top.
“He’s a real good quarterback,” Aquinas linebacker Jahmar Brown said. “Nothing else to say about it. He’s a pretty good quarterback. The best in Dade, in my opinion.” The teams duked it out all night with the lead changing hands multiple times. But the Rockets took the lead for good in the fourth quarter. Underwood was the biggest reason why.
Underwood kept Central in the game, even as Aquinas jumped ahead early in the second half.
Once the third quarter started, Aquinas came out firing. Using a hurry-up offense, the Raiders drove down the field in 1:21, scoring on a 30-yard pass from Curt Casteel to Jamal Cooney.
After stopping the Rockets on their next drive, the Raiders scored quickly again, this time on a 26-yard run by Daniel Carter, giving them a 21-14 lead.
“Our guys did a great job of executing,” Harriott said. “The ball obviously didn’t bounce our way when we needed it to. That’s the game of football.”
But the Rockets didn’t collapse. They cut the margin on a field goal late in the third quarter, then Underwood threw his lone passing touchdown of the night on a 63-yard bomb to Anthony Colonel, giving Central a 23-21 lead in the fourth.
The senior quarterback scored twice more in the fourth quarter, both on short runs. His touchdowns put the Rockets ahead 37-21.
The Raiders fought till the end, scoring with 2:23 left in the game to cut the lead to 10. But when Aquinas went for two in an attempt to make it a one-score game, Casteel went down with a sack.
The Rockets put the game away late in the fourth on a short running touchdown by Shemar Paul.