Business finished: Chaminade wins 4th Class 3A state title in five years
TALLAHASSEE
All year long, they referred to it as “unfinished business.”
On Friday night, the Chaminade-Madonna football team finished that business in style.
Unlike a year ago when they lost a 16-point lead in the second half and suffered a heartbreaking last-second loss in the title game that haunted them for a full year, the Lions found a much happier ending against previously unbeaten Tampa Berkeley Prep in the Class 3A state championship game.
Chaminade-Madonna, especially on defense, dominated all night long and turned in an impressive 21-0 shutout of Berkeley Prep at Gene Cox Stadium.
The win completed a remarkable 11-1 season in which the Lions played one of the toughest schedules in the entire nation and notched their fourth state title in the past five years. It also marked the program’s sixth title joining the 2003 and 2005 teams.
“I don’t know what to say, God is good,” said Chaminade coach Dameon Jones. “I’m thankful to my coaches and kids for all of the hard work they’ve put in along with the administration for backing this program. As far as last year is concerned, I really didn’t harp on it all year and tried not to talk about it too much. Once they playoffs began, then I started to bring it up and remind them about all that crying that went on and that bitter taste they had in their mouths and that long bus ride home.”
While Jones could appreciate his entire team’s performance on Friday night, he had to give a special shout-out to his defensive unit.
Taking on a team that came into the game averaging 361 yards of offense per game, the Lions defense, led by bookend defensive ends Jamaal Johnson (UCF commit) and Kenyatta Jackson (Ohio State commit), absolutely stifled the Berkeley Prep offense.
Not only did the Buccaneers never get near the end zone, they didn’t even get a sniff of the red zone. Their deepest penetration of the night was to the Chaminade 31 on their second possession of the game, and that was only because Lions quarterback Cedrick Bailey fumbled the ball at his own 37, Chaminade’s only turnover of the night.
When the dust had settled, the Lions defense had held Berkeley Prep to just 61 yards of total offense, 31 rushing and 30 passing.
The offensive star of the night for Chaminade was sophomore running back Davon Gause, who finished with 200 yards on 26 carries and two touchdowns.
His 22-yard scoring run through a wide-open hole up the middle with 10:09 left in the game made it 21-0 and, with the Chaminade defense playing the way it was, the Lions sideline knew what was on the way and started an early celebration.
“What a great feeling right now,” said Gause. “We worked so hard all year to try and get to this moment. It was a long journey and we tried not to get too caught up in the end result, just trying to win and get better each week. We knew if we did that, we would eventually get to where we’re at right now.”
Asked about how it felt to make such a valuable contribution in such a big game, Gause wanted to make sure he credited his defense more than himself.
“It’s great that I was able to contribute the way I did tonight and do my part, but you had to give it up to our defense,” said Gause. “They were flying around out there and it was great to see. They held it down for us and then came out in the second half and won the game.”
The first half resembled something like a back alley street fight as Berkeley’s defense nearly matched Chaminade’s effort.
The Lions defense led by Johnson and Jackson never allowed the big Berkeley offensive line and its vaunted running attack to get on track, holding the Bucs to 44 yards on the ground, zero yards passing and just two first downs when the game reached halftime.
The Lions’ defense’s biggest moment came early when it yielded only six yards on three plays following Bailey’s fumble. On fourth-and-four, Jackson batted down quarterback Troy Reader’s pass, turning the ball over on downs.
Led by Bailey, Chaminade got the only score of the half when the Lions drove 87 yards in six plays and Gause, from the wildcat formation, went over from two yards out on the final play of the first quarter.
Standing among all of his well-wishers wearing his championship medal, Jones was then asked how long he could keep this thing going at Chaminade as the Lions might likely be favored to win another title again next year, and got spiritual.
“As long as God will allow me to,” Jones said with a smile.