St. Thomas Aquinas High School Football

Published on Saturday December 20, 2008 in The Miami Herald

No Doubt about about it: Raiders are Champs

St. Thomas Aquinas defeated Lakeland to capture its’ second consecutive Class 5A crown and likely secure the national title

By MIKE PHILLIPS

It's a good thing the players from St. Thomas Aquinas weren't out for revenge.

Otherwise the Class 5A state football title game could have gotten ugly.

All week long the kids from Aquinas downplayed all that talk about vengeance and redemption against Lakeland, a program that had broken Aquinas' heart four times in the state championship game.

Then the Raiders went out and humiliated the Dreadnaughts 56-7 to win their second consecutive state title, fifth in their history, and finish a 15-0 season by putting a resounding exclamation point on winning the mythical national title.

That's right, 56-7. No misprint. No doubt for St. Thomas, which never doubted itself.

''We knew we were going to do this,'' said offensive lineman Brandon Linder. ''We were talking about it on the bus. The bigger the game, the bigger we play. We did the same thing against Deerfield [Beach]. That was big game and it was 65-10. This was big, and we put 56 points on them.''

Even Cris Carter, whose son Duron had a touchdown catch, was impressed.

''These kids rise to the occasion,'' said Carter, who helped coach the receivers. ''They've done it all year. I'm so proud of all of them.''

The Aquinas kids, who didn't celebrate much after blowing teams out, were jumping around, hugging each other, embracing the moment after this one.

''This is the best feeling I've ever had in my life,'' said defensive lineman William Nesselt, who like the other Aquinas players had refrained from talking about a national title.

''We're the national champs. Bam! Hands down. There's nobody better than us.''

Nesselt, quarterback Ryan Becker and linebacker Conor O'Neill, the three senior leaders, got together this week and decided even if it wasn't personal for them, they would dedicate the game to coach George Smith.

''This was for Coach Smith,'' said Becker, who tossed a 53-yard TD pass on the second play of the game and finished the night completing 8 of 11 for 100 yards and three TDs. ''We wanted this for him. This is amazing. To beat Lakeland and to beat them like that. It's been an amazing season.''

Becker finishes 29-1 with two state titles in his two years as the Aquinas quarterback, but nothing felt like this.

''This is the best feeling ever,'' said O'Neill, who scored on a 20-yard interception and finished with 11 tackles. ''This was a different team [than the ones that lost to Lakeland].

It's our team and this was our turn.''

Even Smith, a man of few words, felt moved.

''This is a win for all those teams that played them and didn't beat them,'' he said. ''This is very, very special.''

So was this team. They beat 15 teams by an average of more than 40 points a game, outscoring everyone 781 to 124 on the way to the coronation and the title of best in Aquinas history.

''In my heart I would love for my team to play this one,'' said Aquinas grad Michael Irvin.

''But in my head you have to say there might not have been a better team than this one.

That's why I'm here tonight.''

O'Neill was blunt: ‘‘we're the national champs,'' he shouted. ''We showed the nation what we are all about.''

There was no need for a party afterward. The party took place during the game.

Aquinas, ranked No. 1 in the National Prep Poll, ESPN and USA Today's rankings, will be the first Broward team to be the consensus national champs after beating Lakeland, which was ranked as high as No. 6 in the nation.

How bad was it? They had to go to a running clock in the fourth quarter. It was the worse loss in the Naughts' playoff history (they fell to Sarasota Riverview 55-21 in the '93 playoffs), and one of the largest routes in big school title game history, second only to Venice's 77-14 win over Dwyer in 2000.

It was total domination.

Giovanni Bernard had 104 yards on the ground with six minutes left in the third quarter. James White had 98 at that point.

By the time Becker completed his eighth pass of the night, he had already thrown three touchdowns. And that third touchdown -- a 5-yard pass to Duron Carter with 5:18 left in the third -- made it 49-7.

''They deserve to be the national champions,'' said Lakeland coach Bill Castle, who won two national titles with state title wins over Aquinas in '05 and '06. ''They really shocked us early, and made it for a long night.''

Lakeland beat Aquinas in '96, '03, and’04 and in double-overtime in '06. But this one ended early for the Raiders, who were in their 12th state title game in the past 18 years. The '08

Raiders are the second perfect team from Aquinas (the '92 champs won the first state title at Aquinas and went 14-0) but the first to win a national title.

It took Aquinas just eight plays to score two touchdowns.

Becker found a wide-open Gabe Holmes on the second play of the night for a 53-yard touchdown as the Raiders covered 57 yards in 57 seconds in their opening drive.

''We talked about all the times they beat us before the game, and we came out wanting to kill a fly with an ax,'' Holmes said.

It took four plays and a 45-yard touchdown run from White to make it 14-0, and the Raiders went up 21-0 on a two-play drive on the next possession. Bernard broke off a 57-yard run to the 1-yard line, and Becker scored on the next play.

O'Neill, the heart of the defense, picked off a tipped pass and raced 20 yards for TD with 3:12 left in the first quarter to give Aquinas a 28-0 lead.

It was over. Just like that.

The game, the revenge, the national title, and a perfect season.

''Yeah, this was sweet, the sweetest,'' O'Neill said.