Week 5: Treasure Coast impresses in defeat, John Carroll Catholic improves to 4-0

St. Thomas Aquinas 21, Treasure Coast 7

Testing themselves against some of Florida's best teams, for Treasure Coast to host one of the most storied programs in the country Friday night at South County Stadium, the Titans acquitted themselves to be a more than worthy opponent.

Holding St. Thomas Aquinas scoreless for the first half, Treasure Coast was hurt in the second half by the right arm of Raider quarterback Andrew Indorf as the sophomore threw two touchdowns to senior Chance Robinson and ran in another to lift Aquinas to a 21-7 road victory.

The start of Friday’s game was delayed almost 90 minutes due to lightning in the area. Receiving the opening kickoff, Treasure Coast executed their brand of power football and aided by five offside infractions from the Raider defense chewed up over 10 minutes of clock before St. Thomas Aquinas blocked a 35-yard field goal attempt.

Holding the Raiders in check in the first half, the Titans needed a goal-line stand to end the second quarter and Treasure Coast's David Palmero and Jahari Grant helped force a fumble by Aquinas' King Mack that was recovered by Tai Peterson to keep the game scoreless at halftime.

Downfield passing eventually caught up to hurt the Titans as Indorf threw for 190 yards of his 293 yards on the night in the final two quarters with a 9-yard touchdown toss and a 48-yard strike going to Robinson both coming in the third quarter.

In the game's final minute, George Roberts III threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Gabe Avin to help the Titans avoid getting shutout.

Here's three takeaways from a memorable night for the Titans.

A half to remember

The last time St. Thomas Aquinas had been shut out in a first half was back on December 7, 2018 when the Raiders were bogged down by Lakeland in the 7A state title game and lost 33-20.

Since that date, Aquinas has scored 1,543 points, gone 37-2 and have won three state titles in a row.

The effort for Treasure Coast to not only feel like they were right in the game at halftime but easily could have been in front after their marathon drive to open the game didn't yield any points.

Titan head coach Irvin Jones knows moral victories don't mean much in the grand scheme of things but couldn't help but marvel at what his kids did Friday.

"To play a historically great national team, I felt we did a pretty good job tonight against the run, but they starting throwing the ball on us and they got behind on us a little bit," Jones said. "That's all stuff we can fix. To ask the kids to go out there and fight, we were in it tonight the whole way for the most part."

"They're the best 1-4 team in the country"

Of all the opponents St. Thomas Aquinas has faced in recent years from out-of-state powerhouses to the best of South Florida, knowing that Treasure Coast's record heading in what something head coach Roger Harriott feared would give his team a test mentally.

With his knowledge of how the Titans have transformed into one of the toughest teams from a physical standpoint to go along with its scheme few top teams in Florida run offensively, Harriott knew Friday would not be easy.

Getting out of Port St. Lucie with a win to improve to 5-0 and with eyes set on winning its fourth state title in a row, Harriott postgame threw heaps of praise on the challenges the Titans presented that his team eventually overcame.

"They're the best 1-4 team in the country, I don't care what anybody says," Harriott said. "They're the toughest team. Their scheme puts teams in predicaments, with what they do, they execute so well. I tried to tell my team, they're kids so they don't realize how good they were going in. Football's an emotional thing, (Treasure Coast) is not a 1-4 team. They've played really good teams, they've put some points up. They're going to go out and hit you."

Another challenges awaits

While Treasure Coast surely can take a lot of positives with its performance not just Friday night but with the schedule they've sifted through, one final hurdle in its non-district games looms next week.

Chaminade-Madonna, ranked last week at No. 10 in USA TODAY's Super 25, shut out Gulliver Prep 28-0 on Thursday to move to 5-0 and host the Titans next Friday night.

Treasure Coast had little success on the ground against St. Thomas Aquinas, with their longest rush all night of 14 yards by Roberts.

Finding a little bit of success in the final minutes of the game throwing the ball might be something the Titans will tap into more next week and preparing for their final District 12-4S battles with Fort Pierce Central, Centennial and Vero Beach.

Shifting their attention to next week, Jones and his staff will get back to work and prepare for another big task for their kids with their heads held high after Friday's performance.

"My hat goes off to my kids man," Jones said. "We stood in there and fought right with Aquinas all night. We feel like we represented the area well tonight, going up against teams like this."

John Carroll Catholic 28, Bishop Moore 17

Junior running back Tony Colebrook’s 4-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter pushed John Carroll Catholic out front for good as the Rams improved to 4-0 in 2022 with another comeback victory.

Much like their season opener against Benjamin, the Rams found themselves in a defensive struggle in the first half but unlike their win over the Bucs, on Friday John Carroll led 7-3 at halftime.

Bishop Moore quarterback Riley Willis ran in a 10-yard touchdown to put the Hornets ahead late in the third quarter 10-7.

Almost immediately, John Carroll quarterback Dawson Maehl hit RJ Jones on a 79-yard touchdown strike to give the Rams the lead right back 14-10.

Willis gave the Hornets the lead right back on their next possession, punching in a 2-yard run to give Bishop Moore a 17-14 edge going to the fourth quarter.

John Carroll’s defense stiffened in the final quarter, allowing the offense led by Colebrook, who finished with 137 rushing yards on the night to take control.

JJ Gibson scored on a 2-yard touchdown run to ice the victory for John Carroll in the final minutes after the Rams milked the clock on an extended drive.

Maehl finished the night 14-for-22, throwing for 276 yards with Jones catching five passes for 114 yards on the night for the Rams.

Centennial 28, Palm Beach Lakes 0

With starting quarterback Malik Torres sidelined due to injury, Centennial's Daniel Riveron stepped up and led the Eagles to a victory shortened to one half of play in Palm Beach County.

Riveron connected with Cameron Wright on a touchdown pass and Ze'Quan Wright, Ricky Cooper and Kyeshaun Mcclackion also found the end zone to send the Eagles to a 4-1 record.

Fort Pierce Westwood 45, Glades Day 0

Fort Pierce Westwood was never threatened Friday, leading 33-0 at halftime as the Panthers cruised and move to 3-1 on the season.

Joesph Weathers threw a touchdown pass to Jacob Mills and Javian Nonnombre threw a touchdown pass to Jaylyn Monds leading the offense.

Braylon Vincent stepped up to play running back and ran for 120 yards and two touchdowns for Fort Pierce Westwood.

Christopher Pierre recovered a fumble and returned it five yards for a touchdown on defense for the Panthers.

Palm Bay 14, Fort Pierce Central 7

Two second quarter touchdowns from Palm Bay made the difference Friday night as Fort Pierce Central dropped to 1-3 on the season.

Deuel Fider caught a 53-yard touchdown pass from Jayden Mobley and added a 1-yard touchdown run to account for all of the scoring for the Pirates.

A blocked punt returned for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter was too little too late for the Cobras, who take on Vero Beach next Friday.

Westminster Academy 48, St. Edward's 6

A long road trip against a tough opponent proved to be too much of an ask for the Pirates, who could not hold up defensively all night Friday.

Grant Domenech scored on a 1-yard touchdown run midway through the first quarter that gave St. Edward's life trailing 13-6.

Westminster Academy quarterback Anthony Barbar threw four touchdowns from that point on, two to Jahlan Paul and the Lions got two rushing touchdowns from Alonso Collins to improve to 4-0 on the season while the Pirates dropped to 2-2.

Master's Academy 44, Duval Charter 6

Caleb Cotton ran for 201 yards and four touchdown and added two passing touchdowns in the win for the Patriots.

Bryan Cooney is a high school sports reporter at TCPalm, part of the USA TODAY Network. You can reach him at bcooney@gannett.com and also on Twitter at @Bryan_Cooney.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Week 5: Treasure Coast impresses in defeat, John Carroll moves to 4-0