St. Thomas uses turnovers to beat American Heritage
St. Thomas Aquinas typically sets a target number for takeaways in any given game — a challenge for its defense — and usually the bar is high. On Friday, Derrieon Craig said he wanted three against Plantation American Heritage and someone else told him to aim higher.
“They told me five,” the linebacker said. “For real, that’s a true story.”
In the fourth quarter, the Raiders hit their mark with an interception on the goal line to crush one of American Heritage’s last great scoring chances in Plantation. St. Thomas Aquinas held off the Patriots for a 24-16 win at American Heritage School.
The Raiders intercepted Blake Murphy in the first quarter and recovered two of the Patriots quarterback’s fumbles in the third, including a strip-and-score by Craig to knot the game at 14-14 on the opening possession of the second half. After Murphy was carted off the field after an apparently serious injury later in the third, American Heritage quarterback Ty Law Jr. entered and threw two more interceptions in the fourth quarter.
St. Thomas Aquinas, which dropped all the way to No. 24 in the MaxPreps rankings after a stunning loss to Tampa Jesuit last Friday, managed to rally for a road win despite getting just 251 yards of total offense thanks to two interceptions by safety Conrad Hussey, one by linebacker David Vadala and a pair of fumble recoveries.
“[Raiders defensive coordinator Jason] Taylor does a good job of getting the defensive guys excited and bought into the scheme,” coach Roger Harriott said. “They’re adamant about forcing turnovers and creating opportunities to change the momentum of the game.”
No singular play was more important than Craig’s touchdown in the second half.
The game was nearly three-and-a-half hours old by the time Craig blew up a broken play in the third quarter to tie the score at 14-14. At 7:30 p.m., Heritage Field was backed to the brim with a sellout crowd. Coaches from the Miami Hurricanes and Alabama mingled on the sidelines. Even Dolphins wide receiver Jaylen Waddle found a place near the corner of the end zone to watch the two defending state champions play in Broward County.
A half an hour later, a siren blared, both teams headed to the locker rooms and fans retreated to their cars to wait out a lightning delay. Even though a drop of rain didn’t fall, the crowd was thinner by the time the game resumed 1:55 later.
On the field, the Raiders (2-1) and Patriots (1-2) were tied 7-7, although St. Thomas Aquinas had just gotten an interception.
The Raiders did nothing with the possession — they went three-and-out, punted away and American Heritage drove right back for an eight-play, 55-yard touchdown drive, capped by star running back Mark Fletcher’s 2-yard score. American Heritage took a 14-7 lead into halftime and got the ball to start the third quarter.
Two solid runs put the Patriots in a third-and-1 situation and Murphy ran up the middle. He easily got the yard, but Craig saw an opportunity. He reached into Murphy’s arm, pried the ball away and ran into the end zone for a game-tying 30-yard touchdown.
“That set the tone,” said Craig, who made the same sort of play in St. Thomas Aquinas’ win against American Heritage last year.
Chaminade-Madonna A 33, Columbus 17: Chaminade-Madonna (2-1) fell into an early hole on Friday, but a resilient effort saw it climb out of it to pick up a convincing win against Columbus (1-2) in Miami.
The Lions were down 14-0 after a rough first quarter, but they came up with big plays in all phases of the game to win the meeting between perennial state-championship contenders.
“We did everything wrong the first quarter and we gave ourselves something we had to come back from, but we fought through adversity,” Chaminade coach Dameon Jones said. “[The players] did a good job of fighting. We did not lie down.”
The comeback started with 8:34 left in the second quarter. Chaminade sophomore Brendan Leal pounced on a blocked punt in the end zone to get the Lions on the board, then an interception from junior D’Angelo Ponds helped set up a Samir Atassi field goal to trim he deficit to 14-10.
Explorers kicker Luis Palenzuela answered with his own field goal to push Columbus’ lead back to 17-10 at halftime before the Lions (2-1) erupted in the second half.
Chaminade-Madonna running back Davion Gause tied the score at 17-17 with 9:10 left in the third quarter on a cutback touchdown run that left several Columbus defenders in the rear-view mirror.
A fumble in the red zone with 8:51 left to play in that quarter cost Chaminade an opportunity to take its first lead of the night, but the team made amends via a Cedric Bailey rush at the two-minute mark to put the Lions ahead 24-17.