D'Vontis Arnold won the game for Miramar with his second touchdown of the night. It catapulted No. 24 Miramar to an upset win over No. 5 St. Thomas Aquinas.
Photo by Stuart Browning
won a football game seemingly against all odds on Thursday night.
But according to its coaches and players, Miramar was lifted by a greater power.
D'Vontis Arnold scored his second 1-yard touchdown - this one in overtime - then watched his defense hold as No. 24 Miramar upset host and fifth-ranked
St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) 27-20 in a national showdown in South Florida.
Miramar had lost the previous four games to Aquinas by an average margin of 30 points.
Tracy Howard and Miramar had plentyof reason to celebrate Thursday.
Photo by Stuart Browning
According to the Miami Herald, the Miramar victory broke all sorts of streaks.
* It was Aquinas' first loss after 19 straight wins.
* It was the Raiders' first home loss to the day since 2006.
* Aquinas had last lost to a Broward county team in 2007 - that was to the Denard Robinson-led Deerfield Beach squad.
* St. Thomas had won 56 of its previous 57.
Miramar cornerback
Tracy Howard blocked a potential 35-yard field goal by
Nolan Bieck at the end of regulation. Bieck had earlier booted field goals of 45 and 42 yards in the second quarter. He also missed a 24-yarder in the first quarter.
Miramar (5-0) forced overtime with 3 minutes, 50 seconds left in the fourth quarter on a 10-yard touchdown run by backup quarterback
Devonte Mathis.
Then after Howard's kick block, Arnold scored in overtime before Terrell Hill knocked away a fourth-down 10-yard pass from
Max Lescano to end the game.
Other top defenders in the game according to the Herald were
Mark Rucker,
Trevon Coley and
Marrell Jackson.
“We were driven," Howard told Manny Navarro of the
Miami Herald. "Everybody on this team has a personal drive in them, a chip on their shoulder and we just pulled it out.”
Part of that drive according to Miramar coach Damon Codgell was the memory of former teammate and offensive lineman Isaiah Laurencin,
who died during conditioning drills over the summer.
Codgell told reporters that Miramar, which piled up almost 400 yards, dedicated the win to Isaiah.
"It's amazing," he said. "The kids fought. They deserved it. It was for Isaiah."
Dante Campbell knocks away a passin Thursday's big matchup.
Photo by Stuart Browning
Arnold opened the scoring with a 1-yard plunge with 3:43 left in the first quarter capping an 85-yard drive.
Aquinas (4-1) responded with 13 unanswered points in the second quarter on Bieck's two field goals and a 56-yard touchdown scamper by
Lescano.
Miramar quarterback
Cam Hudge tied the score at 13 with a 19-yard TD pass to
Malcolm Lewis midway through the third quarter but the PAT missed.
Lescano came right back, firing a 28-yard scoring pass to
Nicolas Shepherd with 3:16 left in the third quarter, to go up 20-13.
Miramar's game-tying touchdown by Mathis capped a 70-yard drive and was finished off without Hudge who was knocked out of the game on a hard hit.
Mathis, the team's backup quarterback, made a big 10-yard third-down run before his game-tying touchdown.
Aquinas was without at least three starters on defense due to injury, including Miami-bound defensive end Jelani Hamilton, who left in the second quarter and never returned.
