OT High school national championship game:
NO. 2 MIAMI NORTHWESTERN 29, NO. 1 SOUTHLAKE CARROLL 21
Bulls win showdown against Carroll
Jacory Harris passed for four touchdowns, including three to Tommy Streeter, as Miami Northwestern staked a claim to the nation's top ranking.
CHARLES TRAINOR JR. / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Northwestern's Robert Demps runs off the field cheering after his team defeated Southlake Carroll 29-21 in the Clash of Champions game in Dallas on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2007, between the nation's top two ranked high school football teams.
Posted on Sun, Sep. 16, 2007Digg del.icio.us AIM reprint print email
BY ANDRE C. FERNANDEZ
a1fernandez@MiamiHerald.com
CHARLES TRAINOR JR. / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Northwestern's Robert Demps runs off the field cheering after his team defeated Southlake Carroll 29-21 in the Clash of Champions game in Dallas on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2007, between the nation's top two ranked high school football teams.
NW at Southlake Carroll
Bulls' Harris leads by example
Northwestern fans go distance
DALLAS -- Miami Northwestern's football team will wake up this morning as the nation's best high school football team.
After traveling more than 1,000 miles to Texas this week, the Bulls made a statement for Florida, and Miami-Dade County, football by defeating Texas' Southlake Carroll 29-21 in front of 31,896 fans at Gerald J. Ford Stadium and a national television audience Saturday night.
Northwestern (3-0), which entered the game ranked No. 2 nationally, will ascend to the top spot and is considered a lock to win the county's first mythical national title since Coral Gables in 1969 -- should it finish undefeated.
GETTING RESPECT
''The best football is in Florida, and that's a fact,'' senior defensive tackle Marcus Forston said. ``The media is always saying the other states are better, but we got Florida its respect.''
The Bulls had to rally twice to break the Dragons' Texas-record 49-game winning streak -- the longest active run in the country. Southlake Carroll (2-1), which had played before crowds as large as 60,000 before, lost only its second game in the past 82.
Before this season, no Dade team had played in a game televised to markets outside of the state. Northwestern and Booker T. each won on their first road games outside the state of Florida this season.
''This is a big stage and we had some good people behind us, but our whole team came together on this trip,'' said senior wide receiver Tommy Streeter, who was named the Old Spice Player of the Game by ESPN after catching three touchdown passes. ``From the moment we got into our hotel rooms, to the time we picked up the paper, all we kept hearing about was how we were poor, not good enough. We just had to go out here and show the rest of the nation football is football. We made a statement.''
Streeter, who was bothered by a bruised heel during the week, finished with four catches for 130 yards.
Senior quarterback Jacory Harris, a University of Miami commitment, completed 21 of 28 passes for 280 yards and four touchdown passes with no interceptions.
Streeter caught the touchdown that gave the Bulls their first lead, and put them ahead to stay with six minutes left in the third quarter.
''We called the play Southlake because it was one that we saw [the Dragons] run a lot on film,'' Harris said. ``For Tommy to have three touchdowns on a bad heel is amazing.''
Streeter ran down the sideline, while the Southlake defensive backs keyed on Aldarius Johnson over the middle. Harris lobbed the ball and found Streeter in stride, who ran into the end zone for a 75-yard touchdown.
''We saw that the play kept working for [Southlake Carroll] going for touchdowns,'' Northwestern coach Billy Rolle said. ``We knew it was going to work.''
Johnson led the Bulls in receptions with nine for 54 yards and a touchdown, and Kendal Thompkins had five catches for 53 yards.
Northwestern's defense held Dragons running back Tré Newton, a University of Texas commitment, to 39 yards on 13 carries and no touchdowns. Southlake amassed 265 yards passing, and quarterback Riley Dodge completed 22 of 31 passes for 260 yards and two touchdowns.
SHUTTING THEM DOWN
But the Bulls' defense shut out the Dragons in the second half and intercepted Dodge twice and his backup Kyle Padron once when Padron replaced Dodge for a series after an injury. Senior linebacker Sean Spence, sophomore defensive back Khalid Marshall and senior defensive back Deionte Williams had the interceptions.
''We adjusted by putting in one less defensive lineman that allowed us to play in cover-2,'' Rolle said.
Northwestern's linebackers, Sean Spence, Quavon Taylor and Levonte David led the team in tackles. Spence's turnover helped the Bulls keep their composure early in the second quarter after Southlake Carroll's Derek Tomlin returned a fumble 31 yards for a touchdown that gave the Dragons a 14-7 lead.
Spence jumped in front a Carroll receiver and returned the interception to the Dragons' 19-yard line. Two plays later, Harris found Streeter over the middle for a 19-yard touchdown that tied the score after one of Robert Demps' three extra points.
''We've been through so much before, but this win takes a burden off our shoulders,'' Harris said. ``All the bad things the media said about us, about how we were a poor team. They can see now that we're a team that plays as one and stays focused. Now we can say we're the No. 1 team in the nation.'' |
