High school football: No. 7 Chaminade-Madonna opens season with 35-14 victory over No. 12 St. Frances Academy

No. 7 Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood, Fla.) opened its 2023 high school football season Saturday with a signature 35-14 victory over No. 12 St. Frances Academy (Baltimore, Md.) at the Broward County National Football Showcase in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

North Carolina commit Davion Gause sparked the offense in the win, rushing for a pair of long second half touchdowns and accounting for nearly 200 yards in the contest.

Despite being backed up inside its own five yard-line to start the drive, St. Frances Academy drove over 95 yards culminating with a 40-yard touchdown strike from senior Oregon commit Michael Van Buren to sophomore tight end Damon Hall with 4:01 remaining in first quarter to take a 6-0 advantage. After going scoreless in a season-opening loss, those were the first points of the season for the Panthers. Chaminade-Madonna got on the board just before the half with a defensive touchdown as junior defensive tackle Donta Simpson picked off the quarterback and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown with 3:35 remaining in the second quarter.

Following the turnover, St. Frances Academy responded with an 80-yard drive that culminated with a one-yard touchdown pass from Van Buren to junior wide receiver Jeremiah Koger with 10 seconds remaining before the half. Van Buren also converted the two-point conversion to Koger to give SFA a 14-7 advantage headed into halftime.

On the opening play of Chaminade-Madonna's second possession of the third quarter, Gause converted a touchdown run from 46 yards out to tie the game at 14-14 with 1:59 to go in the third period.

Chaminade-Madonna carried their momentum into the fourth quarter as senior North Carolina state commit Cedrick Bailey connected with five-star Ohio State commit Jeremiah Smith for a 14-yard touchdown strike to give the Lions a 21-14 lead with 10:23 remaining in the contest. Following a fumble recovery by their defense on the previous drive, Gause scampered for another long touchdown run of 57 yards to extend the Lions' advantage to 28-14 with 6:22 to go in the fourth quarter.

A late interception for a touchdown from Bryant Junius extended the Chaminade-Madonna to 35-14 with 38 seconds remaining in the contest.

St. Frances Academy (0-2) continues the toughest schedule in high school football next week when it travels to East St. Louis (Ill.) on Saturday, Sept. 2.

Chaminade-Madonna (1-0) looks to continue its strong start to the 2023 season against Cardinal Gibbons (Fort Lauderdale) next week on Friday, Sept. 1.