Chaminade survives scare to give Broward County a sweep of national showcase

It turned out to be a much tougher night than it ever needed to be for Chaminade-Madonna.

But the Lions did what great teams do and made a few big plays when needed the most.

Chaminade, ranked preseason No. 13 in the country by Max Preps, hung on for a 35-28 victory over No. 17 St. John’s Prep from Washington D.C. in the third and final contest of the Broward Showcase tripleheader on Saturday night at St. Thomas Aquinas.

Wins by Aquinas and Plantation American Heritage earlier in the day gave Broward County a three-game sweep for the day and county teams went 6-1 overall over the three-day event with Dillard, Cardinal Gibbons and Western also winning their games.

When running back Davion Gause scored from three yards out midway through the third quarter, it gave the Lions, who had dominated to that point, a seemingly insurmountable 35-7 lead.

Chaminade coach Dameon Jones sure thought so to because soon after he put his backups in.

It nearly came back to haunt him.

Leading by 28 with a minute left in the third, Chaminade then virtually handed St. Johns two touchdowns. First, a botched shotgun snap by the Lions’ backup quarterback resulted in a fumble recovery by Adrian Littleton, who returned it to the Lions two yard line. Quarterback Myles Slade went in on the next play to make it 35-14 with 0:53 left in the third.

Littleton picked up another fumble two plays later in mid-air and took off running 50 yards for a touchdown as the third quarter ended shrinking Chaminade’s lead to 14 in less than a minute.

Jones immediately put all his starters, including quarterback Cedrick Bailey, back in the game. But the momentum had swung towards the Cadets in a big way.

St. Johns stuffed the Lions offense with a three-and-out on the next possession, took over at midfield following a short punt and proceeded to drive 50 yards in just six plays. The Cadets capped the series with a 3-yard touchdown run by Slade with 8:33 left in the fourth to pull within a score at 35-28.

But thanks to a huge offensive line that averages close to 300 pounds, Chaminade took the ensuing possession and put together a 12-play drive from their own 21 to the St. Johns’ 29 that ate up more than six minutes of the clock as they only threw one pass.

Even though a Bailey pass to Edwin Joseph on fourth-and-six was broken up, the Cadets only had 2:09 left on the clock and no timeouts.

After one first down got St. Johns close to midfield, the Lions defense held. Chaminade linebacker Kaleb Stewart broke through clean and pressured Slade, forcing him to roll left and then chased him down for the game-clinching sack with 40 seconds left.

“He had been really mobile all night and was giving us a lot of trouble,” said Stewart about Slade. “But on this play when I pushed him out of the pocket and made him start to run, I knew I had the angle on him and would be able to track him down and I did. I can’t believe this turned out to be so close. We were cruising but then our two’s came in and struggled. But it was all good. As a defensive unit we had confidence in each other that we would be able to make the plays we needed to make to preserve the win and we did that.”

To his credit, Jones didn’t make any excuses when the game was over as he took responsibility and fully admitted that he had pulled the trigger too early on the substitutions, nearly costing the Lions their shot at a perfect season and national championship.

“This one was on me,” Jones said. “My idea was to try and to keep our starters healthy and give other kids a chance to play and it almost wound up costing us tonight. Fortunately we made enough plays down the stretch to hang on and get the win but for sure we didn’t need to put as much stress on ourselves as we wound up doing. We gave them (St. Johns) two touchdowns with those two quick turnovers and then it was game on. But we managed to put that great drive together that took all that time off the clock and that was what won it for us.”

Jones watched his team perform nearly flawlessly in the first half as the Lions jumped all over the Cadets, taking a 21-0 lead just one minute into the second quarter. Bailey fired a short touchdown pass to Jeremiah Smith and Edwin Joseph went over from a yard out for the Lions’ first two scores. Then came a gem out of the playbook as Bailey tossed a lateral pass to Joshua Trader who then squared up and threw a deep strike to a wide open Smith for a 70-yard score.

The only mistake Bailey made in an otherwise nearly flawless 18-for-25, 243-yard performance was an ill-advised throw three minutes before halftime that St. John’s cornerback Tariq Hayer picked off and returned 80 yards for a touchdown. But Bailey made amends on the next drive, executing a two-minute drill to perfection, driving the Lions 81 yards in nine plays, hitting Trader for a 23-yard score 45 seconds before halftime.

This story was originally published August 28, 2022 at 7:35 AM.