By Stephen Spiewak
MaxPreps.com
CINCINNATI, Ohio – The visitors from Florida may have gotten off to a slow start, but before long, it was clear that the St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders had arrived.
Ryan Becker connected with Duron Scott for a 59-yard touchdown pass, and later found Beau Bucci from 18 yards out as St. Thomas Aquinas caught fire before halftime en route to a 35-24 victory against Elder in the opening game of the Kirk Herbstreit Varsity Football Series at Paul Brown Stadium on Saturday.
The Raiders, defending Florida 5A champions, showed a little rust early on as Elder jumped to an early 10-0 lead thanks to several big hook-ups between quarterback Mark Miller and wide receiver Josh Jones, who was electric in the first quarter.
Scoring a field goal on its first possession, Elder went back and forth trading punts with Aquinas. One play after Miller found Jones on a deep route all the way down to the five-yard line, Jones slid to catch a Miller pass and give the Panthers a 10-0 lead in the first quarter.
Jones finished with 117 yards on seven catches. The Raiders’ defense keyed on Jones after his early big plays, and he was held in check the rest of the way.
From there, head coach George Smith’s squad turned it up a notch and found an offensive rhythm. Carter made a fantastic, one-handed grab that helped set up an eight-yard Ronnie Kennedy touchdown scamper.
Then it was time for Duron Carter, son of former Minnesota Vikings’ wide receiver and current Raiders’ assistant coach Cris Carter, to make his presence felt.
Carter broke into the secondary, beat two Elder defensive backs, and caught a perfectly thrown ball by Becker across the middle. Carter brought it to the house, giving St. Thomas Aquinas a lead that it would not relinquish.
“We just got into a rhythm in the second quarter,” said Carter, who finished the game with four catches for 131 yards.
Elder got the ball back with one minute to go before halftime but quickly handed it back to Aquinas when Miller was intercepted by Dylan Drake on the 26-yard line.
That set up Becker’s touchdown strike to Beau Bucci, which Carter enabled with a monster block near the goal line, as the Raiders took a 21-10 lead into the locker rooms.
Showing no signs of letting up after halftime, the Raiders opened with a 90-yard touchdown strike, as wide receiver Dwayne Difton escaped the Elder secondary and sprinted all the way down the field for the Raiders’ fourth score of the game.
Becker amassed 283 passing yards and three touchdowns on the day. He ran for 58 yards and one more score.
Elder showed signs of life in the second half when senior Joe Hetzer, taking over for Miller, converted on pass to Tim O’Connor on 4th-and-2 from the Raiders’ six-yard line to narrow the gap to 28-17.
Turnovers once again plagued the Panthers in the second half, as the Raider defense continued to force Elder to make mistakes. Driving with less than five minutes to go, Hetzer was picked off by Cody Riggs, his second interception of the game, to seal the victory for St. Thomas Aquinas.
After the game, despite being the focal point of the media’s attention, Carter pointed to his teammates’ efforts as the reason the Raiders came away victorious.
“It’s not an individual win,” said Carter, beaming with a smile reminiscent of his father. “And it shows we are one of the best teams in the nation.”
For Elder coach Doug Ramsey, there are positives to take away from a game full of errors.
“We made some mental errors,” Ramsey said. “When you play against the athletes they have, and you make a mistake, it turns into a big play. I told the kids after the game I still think we’re a really good football team.”
Elder, who now owns a 1-2 record in the Herbstreit Football Series, will host Warren Central (Ind.) at the Pit next weekend.
St. Thomas Aquinas will play Cardinal Gibbons next week. A battle against 6A power Deerfield Beach, the only school to beat the Raiders last season, looms in week seven.
Warren Central (Ind.) 39, Middletown (Ohio.) 35
It was certainly not a beautifully played football game, but for John Hart in his second game as Warren Central’s head coach – and in the Warriors’ debut game in the Herbstreit Football Series – it was a win he will take.
“We got it done,” Hart said.
The Warriors rode star running backs Eric Williams and George Cheesebourough, as the senior duo got Hart his second victory, 39-35, over Middletown (Ohio) in the second game of the Kirk Herbstreit Football Series at Paul Brown Stadium.
With his agility and quick change of direction, Cheesebourough was a perfect complement to Williams, a power runner who was dragging Middletown tacklers all afternoon long. Cheesebourough ended with 127 yards and two touchdowns, while Williams totaled 153 yards and also had a pair of scores.
“Both of their tailbacks were very good,” Middletown first-year head coach Jason Krause said.
Middletown never relented, battling back from a 32-15 second-half deficit to narrow the Warren Central lead to only three points on two separate occasions, thanks in large part to the gutsy performance of quarterback Caleb Watkins.
However, the Middies were never able to recapture the lead they enjoyed after opening with a touchdown on the opening drive. They did not help themselves by fumbling five times.
Still, Hart was unhappy with his team’s inability to deliver a knockout punch. He pointed the finger at no one but himself.
“We had a lot of mental breakdowns. That is my job to get them ready,” Hart said.
Hart also expressed concerns about his defense, which allowed several big plays by Middletown.
The Warriors’ win, combined with a Cathedral victory over McKinley (Ohio) keeps Indiana’s all-time record in the Herbstreit Football Series spotless at 3-0.
Colerain (Ohio) 14, McKeesport (Pa.) 7 (OT)
In a game littered with big hits, tough tackles, and everything that typifies smash-mouth, Midwestern football, one hit clearly stood out from the rest.
After Colerain scored on its first possession in overtime, Cardinal linebacker Colin Lozier leveled McKeesport running back Gabriel Patterson off a pitch play, forcing a fumble which was recovered by Colerain’s Chris Dukes and securing a 14-7 victory.
“That’s what high school football is all about right there,” Colerain head coach Tom Bolden said. “Running fast and hitting hard.
Colerain, a week removed from an impressive, seasoning-opening upset of St. Xavier, opened the scoring in the first quarter, on a four-yard run by quarterback Greg Tabar.
“That was my biggest concern,” Bolden said. “My fear was that we’d get hung up on beating St. X and, after we scored early, thinking this would be easy. But they came back and punched us in the mouth.”
In a battle of defenses, the score remained 7-0 until the very end of the first half. McKeesport quarterback Ty-Meer Brown connected with Darnel McKees-Harding for a 39-yard touchdown pass as time expired in the second quarter. It was the only pass Brown attempted all game.
For longtime McKeesport head coach George Smith, the Tigers’ defense came to play, but still has a lot of room for improvement.
“Our defense played well,” Smith said. “But we didn’t play well in the beginning. We got so wrapped up in the magnitude. It was like we weren’t ready to play.”
Neither team was able to create much offensively. The Tigers and Cardinals accounted for 172 and 177 total yards, respectively.
In overtime, the Cardinals marched toward McKeesport’s goal line, and were eventually faced with a 4th-and-goal situation, with the ball only inches away from the sideline.
Bolden said he reminded the team of the overtime drills they did all summer – additional sprints and weight lifting sets done to exhaustion after practice had already ended – and gave the call to go for it.
That led to a quarterback sneak by Tabar that gave Colerain the go ahead touchdown.
When it came time to hold the Tigers, the Colerain defense – the team’s calling card this decade – once again came up big.
On second down, Brown rolled to his right and pitched to Patterson, who had a hard time gaining total control of the ball. That’s when Lozier saw his chance to strike.
“I saw the play develop, and I thought in my mind, ‘I’m going to end this game right here.’”
Lozier closed on Patterson, laid into his chest, and flattened him, knocking the ball loose, and ending the game.
Lozier was playing with a heavy heart. Earlier in the week his father Dan, a Colerain assistant coach, underwent surgery for what was believed to be skin cancer. He is now in the process of recovering.
With the victory, Colerain has now notched a win in every Herbstreit Football Series event, the only team that can make such a claim.
“They’ve done a great job with the match-ups the last two years,” said Bolden, who last year led Colerain to an overtime victory against Hoover (Ala.).
St. Xavier (Ohio) 15, Prattville (Ala.) 10
In a highly-publicized battle of two defending, undefeated state champions, the St. Xavier Bombers held off the Prattville Lions, 15-10, in the nightcap of Saturday’s action in Cincinnati.
In yet another defensive battle in the Queen City, it was St. Xavier junior quarterback Luke Massa that put the Bombers over the top.
Massa was sacked five times but still managed to throw for 173 yards without getting intercepted. He completed six of those passes to the sure-handed Drew Grombala.
“I think the difference is Luke Massa,” St. Xavier head coach Steve Specht said. “Luke gives us leadership and he gives us guidance. He took some shots and battled.”
The game started off slowly for the Bombers, getting on the scoreboard with a pair of field goals in the first half. They trailed Prattville 10-6 heading into the intermission.
“I’ve been here since 1993, and that’s as good of a defense as we’ve seen,” Specht said of the Prattville defense..
After both schools traded punts throughout the third quarter, a Will Carroll interception of Prattville quarterback Sam Gibson set up St. Xavier on the Lions’ 45-yard line early in the fourth quarter. Massa marched the Bombers down the field, setting up a two-yard touchdown by Connor Earley. The extra point went wide left, so the Bombers led 12-10 with under nine minutes to play.
On Prattville’s next play from scrimmage, St. Xavier senior Pat Muldoon came up huge, stripping Jerodis Williams and recovering the loose ball at the Prattville 28-yard line. A personal foul on Prattville advanced the ball 15 yards for the Bombers, and set up a 31-yard field goal by Danny Freudiger.
With under a minute to go, a 37-yard scramble by Gibson brought the Lions into St. Xavier territory. After two deep incomplete passes, Luke Kuechly intercepted Gibson in the end zone as time expired to seal victory for the Bombers.
Massa saw the win as a turning point for this year’s Bomber team.
“We wanted the first win to set the tone for this season,” Massa said. “We had a lot of guys that didn’t play last year. We had a lot of inexperience. It’s big to win today.”
Prattville’s Jamey DuBose, in his first game as head coach, credited Massa with making plays in big spots.
“There had been a lot of hype about the quarterback,” DuBose said. “I tip my hat off to them for executing under pressure. I was proud of our kids. They represented Alabama well.”