ORLANDO – For only the fifth time in FHSAA history, a team has won four state championships in a row.
Jacksonville Trinity Christian (11-3) took the field on Saturday morning with that on the line against Chaminade-Madonna (10-4) in the Class 3A State Championship game.
The Lions jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead when the first play from scrimmage was taken by RB Shaun Shivers ran 80 yards around the Trinity Christian defense. The Auburn commit ran for 101 yards in the first half alone, finishing with 159 in the game.
Trinity Catholic RB Rasheed Martin almost ran for a touchdown on the second play from scrimmage, but was tripped up after a big 45-yard gain. That propelled them down the field, which was then capped off by a D.J. Matthews pass to Isaiah Washington for the 17-yard score.
TC QB Austin Thomas threw an interception to Jordan Williams which the Conquerors took advantage of with a 23-yard field goal which gave them a 10-7 lead.
Henry Colombi threw a controversial interception to Shaun Wade in which the ball was knocked out of Wade’s hand before he could bring it down. But before that, Martin rushed for his first touchdown of the morning with a 14-yard power run to give Trinity Christian a 14-10 lead. The North Carolina commit finished with 156 rushing yards on 27 carries with the one score.
“I’ve got to give all of the credit to the O-Line and God, my O-Line really opened up a lot of holes and blocked really well for me. This is such a blessing and I thank God for it all. I’m just so excited and so happy for what we’ve done,” Martin said.
Wade’s interception turned into seven points for the Conquerors when Matthews long jumped into the end zone which extended the lead to 21-10 – the score at halftime. Matthews was 5-for-8 with 58 yards passing and 101 rushing yards and two total touchdowns.
In the third, things got testy. In a one minute span, Chaminade returned a fake field goal for a touchdown, but was called back for the holder’s knee on the ground while he threw. With that score, things would’ve gotten interesting at the end of the game. On the next play, Chaminade OL Steve Jean-Baptiste was on the ground while Trinity Christian’s Chase Lasater threw punches. The refs eventually dissolved the scuffle – Lasater would be ejected.
Two plays after that, Josh Ali was hit hard after catching a ball from Colombi on the sidelines by TC’s Derrick Smith, which fired up more tension. Longman banged a 30-yard field goal through the uprights to trim the lead to 11.
That would be the closest the Lions were to the lead, as a Frankie Onate 52-yard field goal cemented the 24-13 final score.
Chaminade forced a Trinity Christian fumble, but as they were driving, Smith found himself in the path of Colombi’s pass at the TC 49, which put the finishing touches on the game.
“That interception felt great. We came in knowing that we had to do it, that it was our last year and we wanted to win it, everybody was giving it all they had. It feels real good to be the first team in Jacksonville with a four-peat,” Smith said.