Chaminade comeback falls short in closing seconds vs. St. John Bosco
Chaminade-Madonna reloaded its football roster this offseason after losing one of its most talented classes all-time.
Lions’ coach Dameon Jones wanted to see how this highly-skilled mostly new group responded when pushed by one of the best teams in the nation.
They nearly passed the test.
But a would-be dramatic comeback fell short when junior receiver Denairius Gray was unable to come up with sophomore quarterback Tyler Chance’s pass into the corner of the end zone with nine seconds left, capping a 34-27 loss to California powerhouse St. John Bosco late Saturday night at Brian Piccolo Stadium.
The Lions (0-1), who have won three consecutive state championships and finished ranked No. 2 in the nation last season, had a 14-game winning streak snapped. It was also the end of a 26-game winning streak in regular season games for Chaminade, dating back to a road defeat Sept. 3, 2022 at Plantation American Heritage.
“I wanted to see how they’d stand up under the lights,” Chaminade coach Dameon Jones said.”A lot of them have been in this environment before and they stood up, but we have a lot of stuff to clean up and get better at. It’s hard right out of the gate because normally it takes a few games to come together and gel. But I love these games and this environment and Bosco did a great job.”
The loss capped what was a difficult weekend for Broward County teams in the third annual Broward County National Football Showcase. Broward teams went 1-6 in the seven games of the event including host St. Thomas Aquinas, which lost earlier in the day on its home field to Las Vegas Bishop Gorman.
Although it’s difficult to consider Chaminade as a “rebuilding team” with its consistently-talented rosters and track record of success, the Lions are in a sense going through a transitional period after losing elite FBS-level recruits such as Jeremiah Smith, Jojo Trader, Zaquan Patterson, Cedrick Bailey and Davion Gause to graduation.
This season, the Lions are leaning on multiple sophomores and juniors at key positions as they try to advance to the state finals for a state-record ninth consecutive season in the hopes of winning their seventh state title during that span.
“We went through spring and summer getting to know each other and our chemistry is improving and as the season goes on, we’ll get better at every game,” said junior receiver Jasen “J-Roc” Lopez, who transferred from Miami’s True North Academy this offseason.
Despite those factors, Chaminade nearly picked up the county’s second victory in the event against a Bosco squad ranked No. 4 nationally by MaxPreps.
In a game that featured six lead changes, Chaminade led 27-20 late in the third quarter after Chance connected with Gray for a 13-yard score and junior kicker Noah Sidan, a Miami Norland transfer, made a 22-yard field goal.
The Braves answered with a touchdown drive of their own, capped by Ashton Keyes’ 3-yard touchdown run with 34 seconds remaining in the third.
Bosco took the lead for good when Maliq Blackwell-Allen slipped a tackler and broke loose for a 71-yard touchdown run.
Chaminade had two chances to answer, but came up short both times.
Chance lobbed a deep pass into double coverage that was intercepted by Isala Wily-Ava with a little over three minutes left in the game.
Chaminade’s defense forced a punt, however, giving itself one final opportunity.
The Lions drove into the red zone and faced a fourth-and-goal at the Bosco 15 with 15 seconds left when Chance’s heave into the end zone fell incomplete.
“We came out here doing what we do best and our defense got a couple of stops for us at the end but we couldn’t execute,” Lopez said. “But we have a long season ahead of us. We don’t like this feeling as a team.”
Both teams were hampered by numerous penalties as Bosco committed 14 infractions for 155 yards while Chaminade had 12 penalties for 110 yards.
Chance went 27 of 40 for 266 yards and threw three touchdown passes and the one interception. Lopez led all receivers with 10 catches for 114 yards and a touchdown while Gray had 6 catches for 48 yards and a touchdown.
Derrek Cooper led Chaminade on the ground with 78 yards on 16 carries while Howard had 66 yards on five rushes and Arwin Jackson had 39 yards on six carries. Howard also had 4 catches for 41 yards and a touchdown.
