St Thomas Aquinas Destroy East Lake

     The St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders returned to the state championship game for the eight time in the last 11 seasons as they clobbered the East Lake Eagles 45-7 in a Class 7A state semifinal on Friday night at Brian Piccolo Stadium in Fort Lauderdale. The Raiders will take on the Osceola Kowboys in the FHSAA Class 7A state championship next Friday night at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.
     East Lake(13-1) lost for the second consecutive year in the state semifinal. They fell at home in 2013 to the Dwyer Panthers, who eventually captured the Class 7A title.
     After scoring 45 unanswered points against the Royal Palm Beach Wildcats in the regional final last week, St. Thomas Aquinas(13-1) would repeat the feat as they put up the first 38 points on the scoreboard against the Eagles.
     Special teams became an important factor for Aquinas in the first half as three long punt returns by James Oliphant set up touchdowns for the Raiders. His first punt return in the first quarter was 40 yards to the Eagles 18-yard line. Three plays later, running back Jordan Scarlett raced around the right side of the line and scored from three yards away at 7:30 for a 7-0 lead. Zachary Cicero converted on a 31-yard field goal with 29 seconds left in the first for a Raiders ten-point gap.
     In the second quarter, Oliphant took a 50-yard punt return to the East Lake 37. Running back Deltron Sands finished the drive with a touchdown run through the right side from four yards out with 9:19 remaining to make it 17-0. Oliphant would set their next possession with a 43-yard punt return to the Eagles 30. Quarterback Jake Rizzo capped it with a five-yard pass into the right corner of the end zone to Sands with 3:32 to go in the first half for a St. Thomas Aquinas 24-point cushion.
     The Raiders made it 31-0 at 7:05 of the third quarter when Rizzo faked a handoff to Scarlett and carried the ball toward the right sideline for a 20-yard score. STA extended their lead to 38-0 with 2:04 left in the third as wide receiver Sam Bruce caught a pass in the middle from Rizzo and dashed in from 20 yards out. A running clock would be used for the remainder of the game following that scoring play.
     East Lake broke the shutout at the nine-minute mark of the fourth quarter. Quarterback Jake Hudson found wide receiver Bryce Miller on the right sideline at midfield, he avoided several tacklers and finished a 68-yard pass play.    
     St. Thomas Aquinas put in one more touchdown before time expired and increased their lead to 45-7 as running back Devontae Henry-Cole rumbled in on a 44-yard run with 1:05 to go.