The best get better: St. Thomas Aquinas finishes first 4-peat for record 14th state title
St. Thomas Aquinas, the most successful program in Florida history, has never been better.
The sights are all familiar — the postgame rush onto the field, the medal presentations and the flashing cameras as players huddle around the trophy — and yet this one was different. With their record 14th state championship, the Raiders pulled off a first: For the first time in its history, St. Thomas Aquinas has won four in a row.
It took a second-half turnaround, a timely punt-return touchdown from their best player and a dynamic effort from a quarterback in his first year as a starter for the Raiders, but St. Thomas Aquinas ultimately made sure the Class 3M championship wasn’t particularly close, pulling away from Homestead for a 38-21 win at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale.
“Coming from a school that makes history, that makes so much history,” star center Broden Sobolewski said, “it’s an honor to be part of something that’s new.”
The Raiders never trailed and turned 7-7 tie at halftime into a 31-13 lead with 7:16 left by finally doing what they’ve done all year — and all throughout this historic four-year run.
They began the second half with a 58-yard punt-return touchdown from star defensive back King Mack, then made it 21-7 when St. Thomas Aquinas quarterback Hezekiah Harris ran for a 17-yard touchdown with 3:26 left in the third quarter.
The Raiders (14-0) didn’t win a game by fewer than 11 points all year and across these four seasons they outscored their opponents in the playoffs 869-197.
Sobolewski, who’s orally committed to the Army Black Knights, is one of six players who were at St. Thomas Aquinas for all four of those titles, along with star running back Gemari Sands, star defensive back Conrad Hussey, center Jack Boswell, defensive lineman Tabias Meline and edge rusher Justin Coles.
“I feel so blessed and lucky to have been a part of such a special program,” said Sands, who’s committed to the FAU Owls. “Some guys are lucky to just win this once. For me to win it all four years of my high school is just incredible.”
Sands ran five times for 86 yards and a touchdown. Star running back Jordan Lyle ran 14 times for 87 and another score. St. Thomas Aquinas finished with 273 yards on the ground and averaged 5.1 yards per play, wearing down the Broncos (12-3) with their unparalleled depth in the first ever state-championship matchup between Miami-Dade County and Broward County teams.
For Homestead to pull off an upset, it was going to take a nearly perfect performance the Broncos essentially got one in the first half. On the first drive, Homestead linebacker Marcus Woodley stripped the ball away from star running back Xavier Terrell for the Broncos’ first takeaway. In the second quarter, Homestead linebacker Eduardo Nunez pried the ball away from Sands near the goal line for their second.
It let the Broncos stay tied with the Raiders until they finally made one costly mistake.
Homestead went three-and-out on its first drive of the second half and then a badly kicked, line-drive punt bounced straight to Mack, who took off for the go-ahead touchdown less than two minutes into the third quarter.
After Harris scored about seven minutes later, St. Thomas Aquinas never again led by less than eight points.
Harris, who spent his freshman year with the Raiders before transferring elsewhere and finally returning to be the starting quarterback this year after three-year starter Zion Nelson graduated, went 10 of 18 for 124 yards and a touchdown, with nine carries for 61 yards and another.
With 7:16 left, he effectively sealed the win with a 24-yard touchdown pass to star wide receiver James Madison II, who finished with three catches for 49 yards.
“We knew we could play better. We knew we weren’t playing our style of football ... but we were motivated,” Harris said. “That’s adversity, man. We get motivated and we preach that down there.”
With 14 Florida High School Athletic Association championships, St. Thomas Aquinas now has two more than anyone else and the Raiders are only the sixth school to ever win four straight — and the first ever from Broward.
For the most storied program in South Florida, it’s another piece of validation.
“A lot of people think the reason why win games is because of our talent,” Raiders coach Roger Harriott said. “We’ve got a great structure and extraordinary camaraderie at our school. There’s talent all over South Florida. The reason why St. Thomas wins is because we really focus on the intrinsic aspect of the human with regards to their development.”
None of those previous teams to win for in a row, however, have ever even gone on to play for a fifth straight.
But when all the postgame festivities were done and the final huddle around the championship trophy separated, a voice rang out from the crowd.
“This is addicting,” an assistant coach said. “We’ve got to do it again.”
If there’s history to be made, St. Thomas Aquinas is going to go for it.
This story was originally published December 15, 2022 at 11:19 PM.
