Chaminade-Madonna denied a four-peat

By Lynn Ramsey - Florida Catholic

TALLAHASSEE | Chaminade-Madonna fought through a season like no other, and the Lions nearly capped that epic journey on the throne.

But Trinity Christian kept the Lions away from a four-peat.

Marcus Burke caught two touchdown passes, including a 26-yard pass with 48 seconds left, to give Jacksonville Trinity Christian a 25-22 victory in the Class 3A FHSAA State Football Championships, Dec. 16, 2020.

Burke caught seven passes for 144 yards for the Conquerors (12-1), the last team to beat the Lions in the playoffs in 2017. Ja’Cory Jordan passed for 161 yards on 9-of-18 passing.

“That’s a good football team,” Chaminade-Madonna coach Dameon Jones said. “They made adjustments, we made adjustments. They made the last adjustment. You gotta give it to them. There are no excuses, man. State title game, good ballgame, it is what it is. Hats off to them.”

The Lions (8-2) countered with senior running back Thaddius Franklin. After missing two games with a hamstring injury, he ran for 106 yards on 26 carries and two touchdowns.

“For him to come back and gut it out like that, he’s tender,” Jones said. “He’s still not 100 percent, and he tried to give it his all.”

 

TALE OF TWO HALVES

The Lions’ defense dominated in the first half. Chaminade-Madonna went up 2-0 after Trinity Christian punter Caleb Stevenson kicked a high snap out of the back of the end zone. Then Franklin made it 9-0 with a 2-yard touchdown run on the next drive.

Dylan Reid then returned a fumble 55 yards to give the Lions a 16-0 lead with 1:49 left in the first half. Charles Williams also intercepted a pass in the second quarter.

“Everything was working at that point,” Jones said. “Our defense has been solid all year. They held our team all year. I’m happy with them.”

Trinity Christian gradually began to solve Chaminade-Madonna’s defense. Kaleb Killian ran for 92 yards on 21 carries, including a 2-yard touchdown run with 8:43 in the third quarter that cut Chaminade-Madonna’s lead to 16-7. A Stephenson 19-yard field goal cut it down to 16-10 with 10:33 left.

After the Conquerors stopped the Lions, Jordan found Burke on a sideline route for a 51-yard touchdown that give Trinity its first lead of the night, 17-16 with 6:56 left.

Franklin then carried the Lions to a go-ahead score, bulling in from 1 yard out with 3:03 left. Alas, that gave Jordan and Burke enough time to drive down for a victory.

 

MINIMIZING THE MICROSCOPIC MONSTER

That the Lions even had a season at all was an amazing feat. COVID-19 proved to be the biggest foe for the Lions. The coronavirus pandemic stole spring football and delayed the start of summer practices. Many south Florida teams opted out of the FHSAA playoffs, because south Florida got a much later start to practices and the season than the rest of the state.

During the offseason, Jones and his players corresponded via Zoom calls. The players were also doing their own workouts either at home or in local gyms.

“That’s mainly what we were doing: trying to check on everyone,” Jones said. “Make sure everyone’s health was good.”

Once the students got back to school, half of his team returned to in-person classes while the other half stayed home for online learning. At one point during the season, a teacher came down with COVID, forcing all her classes to quarantine for 14 days. The junior varsity was hit by that quarantine, but it shocked Jones into asking all his players to quarantine.

Opportunities for team-bonding also were lost. The team got together only in practices, but even then, the Lions had to follow precautions. “When it comes to bonding and being together, it’s different from being together all day,” Jones said. “Not having that time is different. (Team-bonding) isn’t as strong as it normally is because of it.”

 

LET’S PLAY

Then came the challenge of putting together a schedule. Chaminade-Madonna started reaching far and wide to build one. The Lions got an earlier start than most of south Florida, opening with back-to-back state finalists. Chaminade-Madonna beat Class 2A champion Champagnat Catholic 27-14 on Sept. 11, then fell to Plantation American Heritage. They also traveled to Fort Myers and Clearwater for games, while inviting 2019 5A finalist Orlando Jones.

Jones said that was the toughest part of dealing with the pandemic. “Certain places were not allowed to leave their county or allowing other counties to come in,” Jones said.

It took quite a bit of discussion with school officials and administration from the Archdiocese of Miami. Once the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came out with the precautions required for gatherings to happen again, the school decided to go for sports. The return to classes further encouraged sports to happen.

“The administration had our backs through this whole process,” Jones said. “Let’s see what we can do with the precautions.”

 

FAITH IS VITAL ... ESPECIALLY NOW

When practices returned, that also allowed the Lions to resume opportunities to grow in the Catholic faith. Jones would gather the team on Fridays to go over Scripture and prayer, discussing for 45 minutes how God works in the players’ and coaches’ lives.

Jones said the Lions also spoke about and took part in the mission work of Chaminade-Madonna, which is part and parcel of being a Marianist school. They took part in the school’s Thanksgiving food drive and Christmas toy drive.

“Right now, that’s what you have to lean on with times (we’re) going through: Prayer and faith are big,” Jones said. “That’s daily. That’s one thing we discuss every day watching over everyone’s families and trying to keep us away from COVID.”

 

WITHSTANDING MOST CHALLENGES

They also had the goal to add a fourth consecutive title. Jones, being a coach who looks at it one game at a time, didn’t believe it would happen until they beat Tampa Berkeley 23-21 in the state semifinals.

COVID tested the Lions. Injuries further challenged Chaminade-Madonna. After staying relatively healthy the last few years, Franklin missed two playoff games with a hamstring injury suffered in a first-round game against Calvary Christian; yet he finished with 901 rushing yards and six touchdowns. Offensive lineman Elvin Harris suffered a medial-collateral-ligament tear in his knee in that game. Defensive end Kenyatta Jackson also missed time due to injury.

Freshman Davion Gause, who ran for 795 yards and six touchdowns, and sophomore Jonathan Harris picked up Franklin’s load. Gause had 133 rushing yards and a touchdown in the semifinal win against Berkeley. Jabez Adderson filled in for Harris, while senior Byron Hall spelled Jackson.

 

SEEKING REDEMPTION

Jones said that defensive back Brian Dilworth, cornerback Ryan Turner, linebacker Dylan Read and Miami commitment Jamaal Johnson at defensive end also made huge improvements over last year. Read led the team in tackles with 72. Jones said he was also surprised by Ohio commitment Torrie Cox at cornerback and freshman defensive back Denzel Johnson.

However, when Trinity Christian came up as the opponent Chaminade-Madonna would face in the final, Jones remembered the history against the Conquerors. He initially wanted to shield that history from the Lions, asking them to think of this year’s final as a normal game.

Then Shaun Shivers, who lost to Trinity Christian as a junior and helped start the state-title run as a senior in 2017 before going to Auburn University, asked to speak to the team.

“He played in that game, lost to those guys his junior year,” Jones said. “He wanted redemption for losing that first year.”