St. Thomas Aquinas defense dominates Venice to send Raiders back to state title game
St. Thomas Aquinas has faced Venice enough to know the game plan is simple: Slow down the Indians’ running game and force them to pass.
They met in the Class 7A semifinals for the fourth straight year Friday and the Raiders dismantled Venice like it never had before in one of these meetings. They took a 21-point lead into halftime, forced a running clock in the first four minutes of the second half and coasted to a dominant 42-0 win in Fort Lauderdale.
“Our players are talented guys, but at the same time we hold them to a high standard,” coach Roger Harriott said. “Our coaches go above and beyond the call of duty, and it’s more like a college type of atmosphere.”
The win sends St. Thomas Aquinas, arguably the most dominant program in the history of Florida, to a state championship for the seventh time in the last nine years and the 12th time in the last 16. The Raiders (13-0) will face Orlando Edgewater in Daytona Beach next month for the 7A championship and a win would potentially tie the Florida High School Athletic Association record with an 11th state title.
This budding rivalry hasn’t always been as one-sided as it was Friday at Brian Piccolo Memorial Stadium. In 2017, the Indians upset St. Thomas Aquinas on their way to a state title. Last year, the Raiders won by 20 before losing to Lakeland in the championship game.
Venice (8-5) never even threatened St. Thomas Aquinas this year. The Indians never got inside the red zone. Their running game was bottled up and, forced to the air, quarterback Steffan Johnson threw four interception. When the running clock began with more than eight minutes left in the third quarter, Venice had only 58 yards of total offense.
“If they didn’t see the run plan, they were going to throw it up,” defensive back Jaden McBurrows said. and we just had to make a play.”
Quarterback Zion Turner accounted for four touchdowns -- two rushing and two passing -- but the Raiders’ defense ensured the blowout. The Indians went three-and-out on their first drive, then McBurrows blocked a punt at the end of their second.
The junior had one of the toughest assignments in the game, tasked with covering Malachi Wideman, who is orally committed to the Florida State Seminoles, and he was the most dominant player on the field. He grabbed a pair of interceptions, including returned 30 yards for a touchdown to trigger the running clock at 35-0 in the third quarter, and held the star wide receiver to just two catches for 5 yards before garbage time.
“It was a good matchup. I had a shaky start at the beginning, a couple of holding penalties, but I came back and we did our job,” McBurrows. “We executed what we do in practice.”
The offense played with the field position advantage all throughout the game and Turner took advantage.
Harriott gave the sophomore the keys to the offense at the beginning of the season, knowing he had the dual-threat capability to win a game like this one. He started the scoring for St. Thomas Aquinas in the first quarter with a 10-yard run down to Venice’s 1-yard line and then a 1-yard sneak to put the Raiders up 7-0. In the second quarter, he connected on a pair of touchdown passes to star wide receiver Marcus Rosemy, who is orally committed to the Georgia Bulldogs, and then a second to Jahvante Royal, who’s committed to the Pittsburgh Panthers as a safety, with 20 seconds left in the half. St. Thomas Aquinas took a 21-0 lead into halftime and it quickly grew.
The Indians went three-and-out right away and the Raiders answered with a three-play, 59-yard touchdown drive, capped with a 41-yard run by Turner. The quarterback finished 8 of 11 with two touchdowns and one interception, plus 71 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries.
“He’s grown exponentially. We had a lot of faith in him,” Harriott said. “Zion is a young man beyond his years. That’s the best way you can describe him.”
This story was originally published November 29, 2019 at 9:31 PM.
