Flanagan tunes up for St. Thomas Aquinas with a win over Chaminade-Madonna

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla – With stars missing on both sides of the field in a non-district matchup between the Flanagan Falcons and the Chaminade-Madonna Lions, the Falcons extended their winning streak to eight games with a 20-6 victory at home over one of the top teams in Class 3A.

Having already clinched the 8A-12 title with a perfect 6-0 record when facing district opponents, the Falcons round out their regular season schedule with tests at home against the Lions and on Nov. 4, St. Thomas Aquinas. The Lions came into the game with star quarterback Henry Colombi, a Utah State commit, sidelined with a shoulder injury. On the other hand, Stanford Samuels III, the star of a shutdown Flanagan secondary unit, also sat out due to injury.

The Lions defense, a unit that has yielded a stingy 12 points per game and has forced three shutouts on the year, was incredibly undisciplined on the opening drive of the game when Desjaun Kearse drew them offsides multiple times to move the chains. After a quarterback keeper to the outside was called back due to holding, Kearse ran it straight up the gut once again into the end zone, this time there was no flag, and Flanagan went ahead 7-0 in the first.

Without Colombi, the Chaminade-Madonna offense was very run heavy between juniors Shaun Shivers, who recently announced his commitment to Auburn and Keyondre White. On the first drive, the Lions offense was relatively stagnant save for an 18-yard run by backup quarterback Daelen Menard.

The Lions punted away to the Falcons and pinned them inside their own 10-yard line. A botched snap on second down pushed Flanagan back to the four with a third and long and Flanagan was forced to punt out of the back of their end zone to the 22-yard line.

It appeared that the Lions would tie the game up with such great field position and another run out of Menard pushed Chaminade-Madonna inside the 10. However, a goal-line fumble was recovered by the Falcons in the end zone for a touchback and the threat was eliminated.

With under a minute left in the first half, the Falcons drove down the field, led by Kearse who hooked up with Caleb Thomas in the middle of the field to extend the drive before Wilfredo Renderos split the uprights as time expired to put the Dirty Birds ahead 10-0.

In the second half, the Dwayne Boyles recovered a fumble for the Falcons and took it to the house to extend the lead to 17 points.

Early in the fourth quarter the Falcons drove into the red zone but were unable to find the end zone and Renderos put in his second field goal of the game to take a staunch 20-0 lead.

Chaminade-Madonna began driving late in the fourth quarter led by workhorse Shaun Shivers and Menard making his own plays with his feet, and through the air. On fourth and inches, Menard dove for the first down to move the chains. Just plays later he connected with junior Xavier Williams in the back of the end zone to put the Lions on the board. The two-point attempt failed and it was too little too late for the Lions, who drop just their second game of the season.

Flanagan came out on top 20-6 in a scrappy contest characterized more so by stingy defense rather than stellar offense. The Falcons (8-1) will host St. Thomas Aquinas (5-2) next Friday before entering the Class 8A playoffs against the loser of Piper and Deerfield Beach. As for the Lions (7-2), they will host nationally ranked IMG Academy (7-0), once again without Henry Colombi, who should be back in the  Class3A playoffs.