St. Thomas Aquinas Upsets Manatee

    The St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders pulled off one of the biggest shockers in high school football this season on Friday night in a FHSAA Class 7A state semifinal as they beat the number one team in the country and defending Class 7A champion the Bradenton-Manatee Hurricanes 35-18 at Brian Piccolo Stadium in Fort Lauderdale. The Raiders advanced to the Class 7A state championship game and will travel 212 miles to face the Tallahassee-Lincoln Trojans at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando next Friday night.
    Both teams had meet each other in the state semifinals for the fourth time in seven seasons. The same scenario happened tonight as it did back in 2009. The Raiders were the defending national champions and number one team in the nation when they lost in Bradenton to the Hurricanes.
    Manatee(13-1), who had their 25-game winning streak snapped, took their only lead of the game as they put up points on their first possession. Gregory Moss kicked a 35-yard field goal at 6:10 of the first quarter.
    St. Thomas Aquinas(12-2) responded with a score on their first drive of the game. Fred Coppet ran up the middle from seven yards out at 3:13 for a 7-3 lead. The Raiders would not relinquish the lead and stay in front for the remaining three quarters.
    STA scored on their first possession of the second quarter as John O'Korn ran in from three yards away and extended the Raiders lead to 14-3 with 8:29 left in the first half. Coppet got the big play in the ten-play, 80-yard drive with a 50-yard run.
    The Raiders kept up the pressure up in the second half as they scored on their first possession when O'Korn found Dion Collier deep down the left sideline for a 38-yard pass to complete an eight-play, 80-yard drive. The touchdown strike at 8:42 of the third quarter gave Aquinas an 18-point lead.
    The Hurricanes answered back quickly as Cord Sandberg, a Mississippi State University commit, led his team down the field in their first drive of the third quarter. John Cucci capped it as he barreled through the middle for an eight-yard touchdown run at 5:14 and they were down 21-10.
    The scoring from both teams came in a hectic pace in the last couple of minutes of the final quarter. With 4:45 left in the fourth quarter, Mardre London cut around the left end and sprinted through on a 22-yard touchdown run to give the Raiders a 28-10 lead.
    Manatee came back with an 11-yard catch by Ja Juan Pollock from Sandberg on a slant pattern with 2:36 to go. Johnnie Lang caught a two-point conversion pass on the left side to cut the lead down to 28-18.
    The Hurricanes did recover the ensuing on-side kick, but officials declared it was touched by the kicking team just before ten yards. London picked up his second touchdown of the game three plays later as he rumbled up the middle from 22 yards away with 1:18 remaining.
    St. Thomas Aquinas will play in their seventh state championship game since 2004. They lost to the Lakeland Dreadnaughts three consecutive years from 2004 until 2006. The Raiders won state titles in their last three appearances at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. They beat the Osceola Kowboys in 2007, Lakeland in 2008 and the Tampa-Plant Panthers in 2010.