By Marty Pallman
Twitter – @mpallman
Saturday, December 10, 10 a.m. at Camping World Stadium, Orlando
3A Championship: Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood) (10-3) vs. #2 Trinity Christian (Jacksonville) (10-3)
Head Coaches:
Chaminade-Madonna: Dameon Jones – first year at Chaminade-Madonna (10-3), (ninth year as head coach, 74-18 overall including 8 years at Hallandale).
Trinity Christian: Verlon Dorminey – 26th year at Trinity Christian, 256-65 overall (6 state championships).
State titles: Chaminade-Madonna: 2 (2003, 05)
Trinity Christian: 6 (2002, 03, 10, 13, 14, 15)
Road to Orlando:
Chaminade-Madonna: defeated Cardinal Newman 42-0 (regional semifinals); defeated Oxbridge Academy 30-13 (regional finals); defeated Melbourne Central Catholic 42-17 (state semifinals).
Trinity Christian: defeated Taylor County 64-16 (regional semifinals); defeated Florida High 38-7 (regional finals); defeated Berkeley Prep 41-9 (state semfinals).
The skinny: Trinity Christian is going for a four-peat, which would tie a state record held by Suwannee (Live Oak), North Florida Christian (Tallahassee), Booker T. Washington (Miami), and Miami Central. The Conquerors aren’t as invincible as they were the last two seasons, starting with a loss at Cocoa in a nationally-televised game in the opening week and a loss at home to Lincoln (Tallahassee) dropped them to 2-2. But since then, Trinity has won 8 of nine games with the only loss coming at home to nationally-ranked IMG Academy (Bradenton) in a game the Conquerors led at halftime.
Legend Brumbaugh started the season as the quarterback, but the offense started moving better when FSU commit D.J. Matthews was moved from receiver to become QB. Matthews and Brumbaugh now share the QB duties, and running back Rasheed Martin leads the Conquerors rushing attack with 1,275 yards and 14 touchdowns and averages 8.1 yards a carry.
Defensively, Ohio State commit Shaun Wade is a dual-threat with 60 tackles and 6 interceptions defensively and is the leading receiver for a balanced Conquerors offensive attack. Appalachian State commit Deon Pate has 10.5 sacks with Middle Tennessee commit Brian Roberts adding 8. Trinity Christian is on a roll coming into the state championship game in Orlando.
Chaminade-Madonna has been to this point before, winning two state titles, and has D-1 talent as well, but not nearly as much experience as Trinity has in Orlando recently. The Lions have a loss to IMG as well as 5A playoff team Cardinal Gibbons (Fort Lauderdale) and defending 8A state champion Flanagan (Pembroke Pines). But Trinity Christian comes in playing well, and that should be enough. Prediction: Trinity Christian 30, Chaminade-Madonna 24.