Chaminade starts fast, holds off Heritage for another win over nationally ranked foe
After just 8:07 of South Florida’s most hotly anticipated game of the 2023 high school football season so far, Chaminade-Madonna was already up by 21 points on Plantation American Heritage. It was the kind of all-phases onslaught the Lions have made routine throughout the last couple seasons, when they’ve been a regular fixture near the top of the national rankings.
It was also all they needed to fend of American Heritage on Friday in Plantation, but it was a good thing they pulled it off. The Patriots outscored Chaminade-Madonna the rest of the way before the Lions finally hung on for a 28-16 win at Heritage Field.
Even though it started out with the look of another Chaminade-Madonna romp, it didn’t turn into one and the Lions, with their lofty standards and an even bigger test coming next week, know that doesn’t fly.
“We shot ourselves in the foot,” Chaminade-Madonna coach Dameon Jones said.
Added superstar wide receiver Jeremiah Smith: “We’ve definitely got to clean it up.”
Finally, the Lions can start to think about its looming showdown with Miami Central on Thursday down at Traz Powell Stadium in Miami. It’ll be a national top-10 showdown, according to MaxPreps, with Chaminade-Madonna at No. 6 and Central at No. 5, and the Lions know they’ll have to be even better than it was in knocking off No. 15 American Heritage this week.
For Chaminade-Madonna, its win stemmed almost entirely from its overwhelming first quarter. They started off with an interception returned for a touchdown by FAU commit Curtis Janvier, and then Smith hauled in a pair of touchdowns from NC State commit Cedrick Bailey to put the Lions up 21-0 with 3:53 left in the first quarter.
Smith, who’s orally committed to Ohio State, finished with six catches for 82 yards, but only had one for 5 in the second half.
Chaminade-Madonna (4-0) didn’t score in the second quarter and didn’t score in the third, either. The Patriots (2-1) hung around and cut the Lions’ lead to 21-10 with 6:42 left in the third quarter on a 1-yard touchdown run by star running back Byron Louis before the Chaminade-Madonna finally buried American Heritage on a 5-yard touchdown run by Lions running back Arwin Jackson with 8:44 left.
This game-sealing drive was a departure from Chaminade-Madonna’s current high-octane identity and throwback to their old ground-and-pound days. The Lions started at its own 14-yard line and ran 18 plays -- 14 runs with only one gain longer than 10 yards, plus a fourth-down conversion in the red zone -- before Jackson punched in the touchdown to push Chaminade-Madonna’s lead back to 28-10.
The freshman finished with 10 carries for 41 yards, with seven for 32 on the touchdown drive.
“That’s what we do. We practice that stuff every day,” Jones said. “We’ve been in that situation where we’re down six, down seven and got to run the clock out, and that’s what we do.”
It wasn’t as commanding as most of their other wins to start this year, but it was another top-25 victory for the Lions and it might be good for them, too.
Just about all anyone wanted to ask Jones about after another signature Chaminade-Madonna win was the next opponent on the schedule. He tried to shrug it off, but even he couldn’t help starting to look ahead.
Said Jones: “We’ve got to put it all together.”
This story was originally published September 15, 2023 at 11:47 PM.