Miami Northwestern stampedes past Raines for FHSAA Class 3A state football title, 41

(This story has been updated to add new information.)MIAMI — Raines’ march toward state championship number four instead transformed into Miami Northwestern’s running of the Bulls.Playing only miles from home before an energetic South Florida crowd, Miami Northwestern halted the Raines run on Saturday night at Pitbull Stadium, stampeding the Vikings 41-0 at Class 3A’s Florida High School Athletic Association championship.

Quarterback Leon Strawder accounted for five touchdowns, four passing and one rushing, and passed for 365 yards to lead the Bulls’ charge to first-year coach and former NFL QB Teddy Bridgewater’s debut championship.

For Miami Northwestern, the quarterback-on-quarterback lessons paid off for the eighth title in school history. Among Florida public schools, only Miami Central and Lakeland own more.

“With Coach Teddy going for me, he was like, ‘Hey, if you’re reading this side of the field, keep your eyes on that guy,’ or when you move and throw the ball,” Strawder said. “He was showing me the ropes, what he was doing when he was playing here. And he just brushed it down to me.’

It was 904 vs. 305, Duval vs. Dade, and the final score was one-sided: The Bulls (12-2) inflicted the first running-clock defeat against the Vikings since Bolles beat them 60-20 in the 2016 playoffs, as South Florida continued its near-total domination of the FHSAA football championships since the demise of the Metro-Suburban system.

A Miami Northwestern team that only two weeks ago was at the center of an eligibility controversy, ultimately cleared by the FHSAA, now stands atop Florida once more.

The game was also marred by a pair of third-quarter skirmishes, the first of which halted play for almost 10 minutes as officials and police worked to restore order.

Still, for one half, Raines remained firmly alive and kicking, bottling up the Miami Northwestern run game with an ace front seven solidified by Jyon Simon, Ge’Terius Brown and King Massey. But…

A flag: On the Vikings’ opening possession, after a third-down stop, Raines junior Eddie Hinton took off running on a fake punt and advanced to midfield. One problem, though: Officials whistled live-ball offsetting personal fouls, bringing the entire play back and denying a potential momentum swing.A football’s length: After Raines stuffed Miami Northwestern at the goal line to start the second period, junior quarterback TJ Cole marched the Vikings up the field for a potential tying score. But on consecutive snaps on the goal line, officials ruled Cole inches short of the touchdown, denied by DeAngelo Thompson and Roderic McFadden on the Bulls’ defensive front.A fingertip: Down 7-0 in the second quarter with fourth and 8 from the Bulls 32, Adron Walker broke open down the seam for a sure touchdown. But Walker and quarterback Cole, just returning to the game from a brief injury, couldn’t connect as the football fluttered off the receiver’s fingers.Strike 3, and the Bulls made sure Raines (13-1) was out.”The main thing is, you’ve got to make plays because we knew they were going to make plays as well… that’s 14 points in the first half that we left on the field and could have given us some momentum going into halftime,” Raines head coach Donovan Masline said.Miami Northwestern went to work, a 68-yard march across two minutes punctuated by Strawder’s 6-yard touchdown to 6-5 junior wideout Calvin Russell Jr. with 19 seconds before the break. That sent the Bulls into halftime with a two-score edge.”Our goal was to shut them out in the second half, like we did last week [against Sarasota Booker in the state semifinal],” Raines senior linebacker Micah Merritt said. “We went in at halftime to get our minds together, but we came up short.”

After Miami Northwestern received the second-half kickoff, Strawder launched a rocket to running back Elijah Hardy on a 65-yard pass out of the backfield for a 21-point lead. Further touchdowns to Russell (four catches, 59 yards) and Lennear (four catches, 125 yards) piled on the scoring and the yardage, and the rout was on.

“They came out and they were stopping us,” Strawder said. “In the first half, any [other] team we play with was 21-0 already out of the gate. So I felt we came out a little sluggish, but then when we started scoring, it just kept rolling.”

Tempers also flared in the second half with a pair of scuffles, the first and more serious occurring in the line during a Raines possession. Play stopped for nearly 10 minutes with three ejections, while officials also issued a fourth ejection two plays later in an altercation following a late hit on Cole that incensed the Viking sideline.

For Duval County public schools, the championship tally remains at four. Raines previously lifted the title in 1997, 2017 and 2018, while Mandarin also won a 2018 championship.

Cole led the Raines offense with 16 carries for 123 yards, but Northwestern’s swarming defense put a lid on the Viking passing attack, limiting them to 46 yards.

While graduating numerous key performers, including Super 11 linemen Solomon Thomas and Simon, Raines is set to return starters including quarterback Cole, running back Tadarius Washington, receiver Ziyon Butler, defensive tackle Brown and linebackers Troy Butler and Tony Williams.

“We’re going to learn from it and we’re going to get better,” Masline said. “We’re going to grow and we’re going to come back even stronger.”