ORLANDO – At halftime of the Class 2A State Championship game, University Christian Head Coach David Penland III challenged his team.
For the second straight year, Penland and his Christians are state champions.
Defense ruled in Friday morning’s championship between the Christians (10-2) and Campagnat Catholic (11-2), with a couple of key interceptions being the major sticking points of the game.
The defending 2A Champions knocked in a 32-yard field goal in the first quarter from Sami Safar to put them up 3-0. Two minutes later, University Christian QB Clayton Boyd went down late in that second quarter with an arm injury, but returned two plays later when the second quarter begun.
“At first, that thing was on fire, but I saw the looks on everybody’s faces around me and I knew that they needed me. I did what I had to do to win us a state title,” Boyd said.
Champagnat QB Patrell Nadal came into the game to replace Kervin Dessources, but that did not work for Head Coach Dennis Marroquin when Nadel threw an interception right into the hands of Dyrell Stubbs.
The next drive? A punt for the Christians. Punts were the story of the game through halftime, with a combined eight through the first half – six from Champagnat alone. The final total – 14 for both sides, 9 for Champagnat alone. The best play for the Lions came when Boyd looked for Otis Anderson in the end zone, but it was intercepted by Devante Mitchell to prevent University Christian from extending their lead.
After halftime, it was more of the same, more three-and-outs, more punts, until University Christian got down in the red zone, primed to score. Isaiah Sharpe would come up with a major interception for the Lions, but Kelvin Perry forced a fumble on the next play.
University Christian LB Leon Huey arguably made the most important play of the game for the Christians, returning an 8-yard Lion punt 27-yards to the end zone to give the Christians a 10-0 lead, which would prove to be an insurmountable one.
Champagnat had two chances to punch it into the end zone in the four quarter, but both were unsuccessful. Dessources threw a pass into the corner of the end zone of fourth down, away from any receiver. Next, the Lions blocked a Christians punt. Champagnat’s Marc Britt found his way to the end zone, but it was called back for offensive pass interference.
Next play, Dessources pass was intercepted by Stubbs for his second on the afternoon, and probably the biggest of his career. “It gave me so much confidence, making me go hard, giving me so much to look forward to in my senior year,” Stubbs said. “I just thank God for everything, I believe he brought me into this world and he helped me with today.”
Boyd rushed in for a five-yard score with three minutes to play, which was set up by a fake punt pass that was caught by Perry on fourth-and-ten. On the next Champagnat drive, Dessources was sacked by James Sasser, fumbled, and then returned by Huey for a 49-yard TD return to ice the game.
Dessources would find Johnquai Lewis for a 13-yard reception to save the shutout from happening, the two-point conversion cementing the 24-8 final score.
Friday’s win gave University Christian their ninth overall state championship, and for the second time in program history, they won it back-to-back (’90 and ’91 being the other).
“It means a lot to be a state champion again. It means a lot for our school, I mean there’s only one other class that went back-to-back, so it was something very special, something that we challenged them with,” said Penland.
Boyd was 9-of-14 for 96 yards, adding 57 rushing yards. The UCS defense limited Champagnat to -26 rushing yards through the first half, but they would eventually finish with -42 on the afternoon. The Christians had three sacks and 15 tackles for loss on the contest, including four from MLB Titus Curry.