St. Thomas Aquinas holds off Dillard to win district title
The St. Thomas Aquinas defense was backed up almost to its goal line, the clock ticking away and its lead looking very close to disappearing.
Dillard had marched 73 yards over 15 plays and was set up for a game-tying 24-yard field goal.
The snap was low. Junior King Mack got his hand on the kick, and fellow junior Conrad Hussey scooped up the loose ball and returned it for a touchdown, sending the Aquinas sideline into jubilation.
“I just saw the ball,” Hussey said, “and took off.”
Two minutes later, Hussey sealed the Raiders’ 23-13 win over Dillard and District 15-7A title with an interception at a sold out Brian Piccolo Stadium. St. Thomas Aquinas improves to 8-1 on the season and has secured its spot in the FHSAA state series. Dillard falls to 7-1 but is still in solid position to earn an at-large bid.
“It was a district championship-type atmosphere,” St. Thomas Aquinas coach Roger Harriott said. “We pride ourselves on playing for a full 48 minutes.”
Star running back Anthony Hankerson scored a pair of 2-yard rushing touchdowns in the first half to pace the offense, but it was St. Thomas Aquinas’ defense that kept them in the game.
But not before Dillard gave them a wake-up call.
The Panthers opened the game with a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive capped by a five-yard touchdown pass from Armani Norcius to Edward Louis to take an early 7-0 lead.
Aquinas buckled down from there, giving up just one more touchdown the rest of the night on a 90-yard catch-and-run by Dillard receiver and Florida State commit Devaughn Mortimer in the third quarter to cut Dillard’s deficit to 16-13 with about 20 minutes left to play.
Dillard stopped Aquinas in the red zone on the ensuing possession and then spent seven minutes marching down the field with the chance to tie or take the lead. It ended with Hussey’s long return the other way to seal the game.
It ended, even if temporarily, a remarkable run of success for Dillard.
The Panthers entered Friday with a perfect 7-0 record and outscored opponents 320-7, its lone blemish being a touchdown given up in a 15-7 win over Miramar. The Panthers have shut out Boyd Anderson (44-0), Deerfield Beach (21-0 in a game that was called at halftime), Cooper City (50-0), South Plantation (66-0), Nova (62-0) and Hallandale (62-0) before facing its biggest test of the year in St. Thomas Aquinas.
This is a team that had lost once in its last 26 games dating back to the 2019 season — a shutout in the regional final loss to eventual Class 6A champion Central to end the 2019 season.
But St. Thomas Aquinas, at 7-1, has faced a heftier schedule with wins against national powerhouse St. Frances Academy, defending state champions Plantation American Heritage and Cardinal Gibbons and Class 8A contender Western. The Raiders’ lone loss was a 24-21 defeat to Tampa Jesuit, undefeated on the season and ranked as the No. 13 team in the country by MaxPreps.
“You want to play competitive games, especially when they’re local,” Harriott said. “When I was here at St. Thomas in high school, our strongest foe was Dillard. It’s nice to see them playing extremely hard and I know coaches are going to do a good job of keeping their spirits up and getting them ready for the next day and the remainder of the season and the playoffs.”
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