TGRIFF BLOG: On Friday Night The #1 team in the country St. Thomas Aquinas of Ft. Lauderdale FL took on the #2 team in the nation Byrnes High School from South Carolina. It was a matchup of St. Thomas's freaky athletes and speed against the great defense and strong rushing game of Byrnes. The defensive front of Byrnes which features two future Tennessee Vols (Corey Miller & Brandon Willis) were constantly disrupting the Raiders backfield. The steady play of Marcus Lattimore at RB for Byrnes helped to maintain possession of the ball and control the clock most of the game. But it was the speed and big play ability of St. Thomas that would capture the victory in a game witched feature the ESPN Play of the night which was a 75 yard TD catch from Phillip Dorsett. Add an eye-popping play from star DB Lamarcus Joyner who returned a kickoff 92 yards for a TD late in the 4th Quarter to give the Raiders the lead for good. Untimely fumbles and poor tackling in the secondary turned out to be the Achilles heal for the Rebels. Against a team like St. Thomas those kind of mistakes will cost you the victory and it did as the Raiders came away with a 42-34 victory over the Byrnes Rebels.
