Zion Turner, Mason Taylor go off to lead Aquinas to statement win vs. No. 8 St. Frances

St. Thomas Aquinas was down for the first — and only — time Saturday and the seconds were ticking way in the first half at Brian Piccolo Memorial Stadium with the Raiders in danger of letting Baltimore’s St. Frances Academy pull away. The two-minute drill began inauspiciously: The first few plays happened too slowly and a holding call eventually backed St. Thomas Aquinas up to its own 12-yard line with 36 seconds left.

Zion Turner finally hit Mason Turner on a slant for 27 yards and the Raiders took a timeout with 25 seconds left. The star quarterback found his star tight end again for another 23 yards and St. Thomas Aquinas lined up for one final play at St. Frances’ 38 with four seconds to go. The Raiders sent everyone deep and Turner rolled to his right. He felt the pressure coming from behind and whirled back to his left when he saw Jaylan Sanchez alone on the left side of the field. He made the throw and it was exactly the swing St. Thomas Aquinas needed: The Raiders went into halftime with a lead and never trailed again on the way to a 38-22 win at St. Thomas Aquinas High School.

“In my opinion,” Turner said, “that play won us the game.”

All it took was this improbable touchdown, five takeaways, a defensive touchdown, nearly 300 passing yards from Turner, a career-best performance from Taylor and a key fourth-quarter performance from Xavier Terrell in relief of injured running back Anthony Hankerson, and the Raiders (1-0) began their season with a statement win in a meeting between top-10 teams in Fort Lauderdale.

Turner went 22 of 32 for a career-high 294 yards and two touchdowns, and added a rushing touchdown in the third quarter. Taylor, who entered the season with just 133 career receiving yards, caught 11 passes for 137 yards in his first game since orally committing to the LSU Tigers last month. The defense came up with a pair of critical second-half turnovers, including a forced fumble on the goal line in the third quarter to preserve a 31-20 lead, and Terrell ran for 66 yards and a touchdown in the second half after Hankerson left for the hospital due to extreme cramping to seal the win for St. Thomas Aquinas.

The Raiders, who began the season at No. 6 in MaxPreps’ rankings, put together a complete performance to knock off the No. 8 Panthers (0-1) at home.

“It was a tremendous win for any program,” coach Roger Harriott said. “That game could’ve actually gone either way. However, we pride ourselves on being efficient and capitalizing off mistakes — we’ve made some mistakes that we need to improve on — but we do a good job of working all ... phases of our game.”

The first break came in the first four minutes. St. Thomas Aquinas punted after a game-opening, seven-play drive and pinned St. Frances back at its own 9. Panthers quarterback Michael Van Buren bobbled the first snap of St. Frances’ first drive and defensive lineman Kyrie Samuel jumped on the loose ball in the end zone to give the Raiders a quick 7-0 lead.

St. Thomas Aquinas came up with another stop and Turner led an eight-play, 65-yard drive — capped with a 20-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Isaiah Hardge — to go up 14-0 before the Panthers answered with two touchdowns in less than three minutes.

It was one of the few mistake-filled stretches for Turner, who’s a top-35 quarterback in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2022. After St. Frances’ first touchdown, Turner threw an interception directly into the hands of Panthers linebacker Michael Vinson in the middle of the field to set up another touchdown drive for St. Frances. After the Panthers knotted the score, Turner took a sack and fumbled the ball away to the Panthers.

St. Thomas Aquinas’ defense, as it did all throughout the game, delivered a stop when the Raiders needed it. St. Frances turned the ball over on downs at St. Thomas Aquinas’ 16 and Turner locked back in. He guided the Raiders on a 13-play, 77-yard drive to set up a 42-yard field goal, and put St. Thomas Aquinas back ahead. When the Panthers answered to take a 20-17 lead with 2:20 left in the half, Turner bailed out a sloppy two-minute drill by throwing his second touchdown to give the Raiders a 24-20 lead at halftime.

“He has a chip on his shoulder,” Turner said. “He’s a competitor, he’s a great field general, he figures out ways to win, he’s humble and we’re excited that he’s leading our team.”

St. Thomas Aquinas’ defense came up with another stop on the opening possession of the second half and Turner followed it with another six-play, 49-yard touchdown drive. This time, he capped it with a 9-yard run and dive for the pylon. Harriott bounded over to his captain and smacked his helmet as the lead swelled to 31-20.

St. Frances only managed three points in the second half. The Raiders’ defense came up with a goal-line stand on defensive back Raynell Chambers’ forced fumble, grabbed another interception when linebacker Derrieon Craig timed the snap and blew up a screen pass to set up defensive lineman Zakaih Saez for a pick, and St. Thomas Aquinas closed out the game with an interception by star safety King Mack on a Hail Mary.

The Raiders, who have won the last two Class 7A titles and claimed a High School Football National Championship in 2019, are on track for another memorable season.

“We ain’t stopping here,” Turner said. “We’ve got a long way to go.”