St. Thomas Aquinas overcomes a slow start to win its delayed football season opener

There’s not much normal about the 2020 high school football season.

But a two and a half hour weather delay on a Friday night in October in South Florida is pretty much standard.

It took 11-time state champion St. Thomas Aquinas some time to shake off the rust of that and an over 10-month wait since their last game. But after a sluggish start, the Raiders scored 19 unanswered points to put away previously unbeaten Tru Prep Academy 25-13 in a game that ended past midnight.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced numerous South Florida teams to delay the start of their seasons or even opt out of the FHSAA state series altogether.

The Raiders (1-0), ranked No. 2 nationally by USA Today, were finally able to play a game Friday night and chose to make the attempt to win what would be a state-record 12th state title and possible third national title.

Aquinas’ defense pitched a shutout in the second half and its defense made key stops down the stretch to seal the outcome.

Cornerback and Michigan commit Ja’Den McBurrows recorded two interceptions and blocked an extra point on special teams.

Defensive end and Alabama commit Dallas Turner found his way into Tru Prep’s backfield multiple times and sacked Saints quarterback Nicholas Vattiato twice in each half.

Tru Prep (3-1), a second-year program from Miami Gardens, is playing an independent season with about 35 players from Davie University School on its roster.

U-School announced it would postpone all fall sports in August prompting the move for those players to be able to compete in the 2020 season.

The Saints took an early 13-6 lead on a pair of touchdowns from sophomore Brandon Inniss caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from Vattiato and later on a 1-yard direct snap keeper.

Vattiato hit a couple of long passes to Inniss on consecutive drives.

But the Raiders’ secondary turned the momentum midway through the second quarter when McBurrows intercepted a pass down the sideline after Turner forced Vattiato to roll out of the pocket and throw on the run.

Aquinas’ own quarterback, junior Zion Turner, a UM target, threw for three touchdown passes and ran for another to pace the Raiders’ offense.

Aquinas capitalized on a fumble on Tru Prep’s opening drive when Turner found receiver Quincy Skinner Jr. for a 27-yard touchdown.

Tied at 13 at halftime, Turner found senior wide receiver Maurice Newton twice for touchdown passes to open the second half helping Aquinas take the lead for good.

Turner found Newton for a 6-yard score with 8:06 left in the third quarter. After forcing Tru Prep to punt, Turner converted a third-and-9 with a 30-yard pass to Skinner Jr. that set up Newton’s second score on a short catch and run for 36 yards with 5:49 left in the third.

Aquinas dressed about 75 players for the game out of its roster of roughly over 100, maintaining social distancing on the sideline as players and coaches wore masks and spread out on chairs around their benches whenever coaches gave them instructions.

Fans were not allowed to attend what was the Raiders’ first game since this past December when they beat Orlando Edgewater in the Class 7A championship game in Orlando.

The Raiders are one of two BCAA schools that opted to remain in the state playoff series.

Aquinas will host Cardinal Gibbons next Friday and then host Plantation American Heritage on Nov. 6 to close out an abbreviated three-game regular season.

With the playoff field set, the Raiders have a bye in the first round and will face either Sarasota or Lehigh on Nov. 20th in the Class 7A regional quarterfinals.Lead goes here.

Other games

▪ Jacksonville Trinity Christian Academy 3, Plantation American Heritage 0: The Patriots defense was phenomenal, shutting down the visiting Conquerors offense, but, in a game that appeared to be headed to overtime, one special teams mistake wound up costing.

With just 12 seconds left, James Williams, a five-star safety lined up to return a punt, mishandled a one-bouncer at his own 17-yard line. Trinity Christian recovered, which set up a 22-yard field for Conquerors kicker Caleb Stevenson as time expired.

The loss dropped the Patriots, who were ranked No. 1 in Class 5A and No. 20 in the nation by MaxPreps, to 3-1, And Trinity Christian, which won four consecutive state titles from 2013-16, climbed to 4-1.

“I told the kids after the game, ‘You can’t win a football game when you’re just too undisciplined, no matter how good your defense plays,’” Heritage coach Patrick Surtain said. “Penalties, a big turnover down deep, missed assignments — it’s how you lose games and that’s what happened to us tonight. You can’t do that against anybody let alone a really good team like Trinity Christian and they made us pay.”

Surtain could only watch in frustration as his defense — led by Williams, fellow safety Boogsie Silvera and defensive end Marvin Jones — completely stymied the Trinity Christian offense all night, but had an offense that simply couldn’t take advantage.

—BILL DALEY

▪ Belen 27, St. Brendan 14: For St. Brendan top players: Richard Dandridge 3 catches 106 TDs; Christian Lowry 12 tackles; Javaris Jones 2 catches 63 yards, 1 touchdown, 4 tackles, 1 sack, blocked Punt. Eric Rangel 10 tackles, 1 blocked field goal. Sean Schieppati 9 tackles.

Cross Country

Belen won its seventh consecutive major meet at the Pine School Invite held at Hobe Sound on Saturday morning to remain unbeaten for the 2020 season. The team scored 19 points in the varsity division in a field that included 12 teams.

Belen was led by Javier Vento, who finished first for the 5K hilly and sandy course in a time of 17:16. In second place was the Wolverines’ Aiden Villasuso, who finished with a time of 17:21. The team is now ranked 12th in the country as per Milesplt USA.

Belen now have beaten 123 teams across Florida this season. The team runs at St. Thomas University next Saturday.

Girls’ volleyball

▪ District championship — Ransom Everglades d. Carrolton (25-9, 25-21, 25-13): Mia balestra 16 kills; Cami Lindsey 7 kills; Kelli Miller 6 digs; 10 service points; Dani Ortiz 35 assists, 2 kills.