Tag: St. Frances Academy

Mater Dei defense scores 2 touchdowns in close win over St. Frances Academy

With Mater Dei’s offense unable to get going against St. Frances Academy, defensive stars Nasir Wyatt and Chuck McDonald took the lead.

Mater Dei’s offense has been dominant this season. Take the 55-8 win over Kahuku on Sept. 9, for instance, when four-star quarterback Elijah Brown threw for four touchdowns and elite running back Jordon Davison rushed for two more. Or the week before, when Brown threw for a whopping seven touchdowns.

On Friday, the defense took care of both sides of the ball. St. Frances Academy’s (Baltimore) defense prevented the Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) offense from getting going at all, not allowing a single offensive score through the first three quarters, but two big touchdowns from the Monarchs’ defensive end helped them maintain a lead through most of the game and remain undefeated against a very tough opponent with a 20-6 victory.

The first touchdown for either side came near the beginning of the second quarter when a scramble for possession resulted in five-star edge rusher Nasir Wyatt corralling the loose ball and taking it home. That 7-0 score would hold through halftime.

St. Frances tied up the game about seven minutes into the third quarter and then got a stop to get back possession.  Their drive was halted immediately and brutally, as the Panthers were reminded that it’s not just Mater Dei offense that has made them the No. 1 team on the Super 25 throughout the season.

Already deep in their own territory, the Panthers gained just four yards before four-star Monarchs cornerback Chuck McDonald picked off a pass and returned it to the end zone to take the lead.

Brown rushed in an insurance touchdown in the fourth quarter, but those two defensive scores were enough to hold the lead. As strong as St. Frances’ defense was, holding Mater Dei’s offense to a single touchdown, the Monarchs’ defense was no less stringent, giving up only one touchdown of their own. Even while the Monarchs scored a season-low 20 points, they got the win and improved to a record of 5-0.

The Panthers are now 1-5, but that has been a symptom of scheduling arguably the toughest schedule in the nation. Four of the losses have been to teams ranked in the top-10 — two of whom are ranked among top-3 teams — and the fifth was to an East St. Louis (Ill.) program that briefly appeared in the Super 25 this season.

There’s good news for St. Frances: This is their last game against a nationally ranked team until mid-November. The Panthers will have a chance to rack up some wins and gain momentum ahead of their matchup with IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.), currently ranked No. 4 in the Super 25.

As for the Monarchs, they continue to set the pace for the nation. They have pole position and have not shown signs of relinquishing.

USA TODAY Sports Super 25 Regional Football Watchlist: East region

See the Super 25 high school football preseason watchlist for the East Region, including St. Frances Academy and St. Joseph’s Prep.

The 2023 high school football season has arrived, with teams kicking off across the country in August.

That means the first USA TODAY Sports Super 25 is nearing, which marks another start to an iconic franchise that began back in 1982.

Last year’s Super 25 was one of the tightest races of all time, as St. John Bosco narrowly won out over Mater Dei and Bishop Gorman, among others.

How will things stack up this season? Ahead of the opening Super 25, USA TODAY HSS is looking around the country at the five regions we use to create the national rankings:

Next up is the East region, which comprises of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, District of Columbia, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Virginia, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maine.

Florida HS football games could be delayed due to extreme heat

The heat may affect the start of the 2023 season, slated for this coming weekend for many schools.

The start of high school football season comes at the hottest time of year for many regions across the United States. One of the hottest states in the bunch is Florida, which like many parts of the country, has experienced extreme weather and heat throughout the summer. At one point last month, Florida’s waters were measured to be over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Playing any sport in these conditions is risky, especially one as intense as football – to say nothing of the added burdens of wearing helmets, pads and uniforms. The heat may affect the start of the 2023 season, slated for this coming weekend for many schools.

According to Dan DeLuca at the Fort Myers News-Press, some Florida high school football games may be delayed or postponed if the heat exceeds certain thresholds.

“At 82 degrees or below on the wet bulb, athletic practices and games can be held without restrictions. Up to 86.9 degrees, they can proceed with discretion. At 87 degrees or higher, practice times are limited, rest breaks are increased and football players are instructed to remove some protective equipment, which would result in game delays. A wet bulb temperature above 92 degrees means all outdoor activities are suspended and cannot resume until temperatures cool.”

The first major game in the state will come on Saturday, Aug. 26, between two top-ten national teams from the 2022 season in St. Frances (Md.) and Chaminade-Madonna (Fla.).

That contest will be broadcast live on ESPN from Ft. Lauderdale. Google’s forecast for the day is currently showing a predicted temperature of 88 degrees to go with 77% humidity. That comes out to a wet bulb temperature of 81.92. Kickoff is at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time.

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Stream live or watch the high school football season on-demand: Subscribe to the NFHS Network

Super 25 teams meet in epic matchup: St. Frances Academy vs. IMG preview

High school football powerhouses St. Frances Academy (Md.) and IMG (Fla.) meet this weekend in a

On Friday night, one of the top teams in Florida will travel to Baltimore to take on another national powerhouse, the outcome of which will factor heavily into the Super 25 rankings.

Here’s a quick preview of this weekend’s matchup between IMG Academy and St. Frances Academy.

8-1 IMG Academy (Fla.) at 8-0 St. Frances Academy (Md.)

IMG: The only loss of the season for IMG came in Week 1 against Central (Miami) – an elite team that’s currently No. 3 in our Super 25 power rankings.

Since then, nobody’s even come close to beating IMG – their closest margin of victory is 15 points and there have been several extreme shutouts along the way. In fact, over the last five games, IMG has demolished their opponents by a combined score of 333-0.

SFA: St. Frances is on a whole other level of competition, though and they might just be better than IMG. While their scores have yet to be quite as lopsided, they still haven’t lost a game this year and have never ranked lower than No. 4 on our Super 25 list.

They also have recent history on their side. These two teams met last year on November 19 at IMG, and St. Frances came out on top, 34-24.

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Here are the full results for last week’s games.

There are some spooky-good high school football teams on our Super 25 power rankings list. As the 2022 season transitions towards the playoffs, several schools have faced lesser competition from their own states, with predictable results.

This past week, 13 schools on our Super 25 list posted shutout victories over their opponents. Not every team was able to come away unscathed, though. Chandler (Ariz.) suffered their first loss of the season and North Shore (Texas) narrowly avoided theirs. Here are the full results for last week’s games.

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Who are the next opponents for the nation’s top high school football teams?

The regular season is winding down for high school football teams across the country. That means there are few chances left for the field to catch Mater Dei, which has been on top of our Super 25 power rankings the entire season. The Monarchs notched another blowout win this past week, defeating Santa Margarita by a score of 52-7.

The best shot at unseating them belongs to second-ranked St. Frances Academy, a Baltimore team that has been idle for several weeks. However, the Panthers are back in action on Friday night. Here’s who they and the rest of the top 25 high school football teams around the country will be facing.

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Three new teams joined our Super 25 rankings list this week. Looking ahead, there may be more shakeups as several squads will be facing as-yet-unbeaten challengers on Friday night.

Here are the opponents for each of the top 25 teams around the country this week.

 

St. Frances Academy visits Dutch Fork in game that could shake up Super 25 rankings

HS Football game of the week: St. Frances Academy visits Dutch Fork

St. Frances Academy (Md.) heads into this week undefeated in the 2022 high school football season. The Panthers began the year with a 20-13 victory over East St. Louis (Ill.), followed by a blowout 47-7 win over DeSoto (Texas). Then, last week they defeated Venice (Fla.) by a score of 34-17. Altogether, they’ve outscored their opponents 103-37 and have won 11 in a row under coach Messay Hailemariam.

This weekend they’ll be getting their toughest test yet, though.

On Friday, St. Frances visits Dutch Fork (S.C.), which is 5-0 this year. After surviving a couple of close calls early on against Hough (S.C.) and Spartanburg (S.C.), the Silver Foxes have started pulling away from their competition. Last week was their most-dominant performance yet, putting away North Augusta (S.C.) 49-7.

Dutch Fork coach Tom Knotts admits that his team is the underdog for this one, per Lou Bezjak at the State.

“We are the underdogs, but I think we are going to find a way to pull it out. That is what I believe and how I do it. That is what I believe in my heart and soul. We will approach it that way. It is our field, our home opener and I think we will play well.”

Knotts has good reason to feel confident. His team has been 87-2-1 since the 2016 season and has won five state championships.

Defeating No. 3 ranked St. Frances might be enough to catapult the Silver Foxes into our Super 25 rankings—which wouldn’t be a first for the South Carolina power.

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High school football schedule: How to watch the Super 25 teams this week

High school football schedule: Opponents for the nation’s top 25 teams, plus how to watch this week’s games.

The Super 25 rankings this week were largely unchanged at the top, as the top schools on the list remained dominant. Bergen Catholic (N.J.), Chandler (Ariz.) and Chaminade-Madonna (Fla.) are all on the rise, while American Heritage (Fla.) took a short plunge down to the middle of the pack.

Let’s see if the cream of the crop can push their luck for another week.

Here are the opponents for each of the Super 25 schools in the nation this week, plus how to watch each of the games live.

High school football schedule: How to watch the top 25 teams in action this week

Let’s see what’s next on tap for these teams.

This past week was a dominant one for many of the teams on our Super 25 list of the best schools in the country. The No. 1 and No. 2 teams (California’s Mater Dei and St. John Bosco) remained undefeated with dominant victories. Five other teams also notched shutout wins over their opponents.

Let’s see what’s next on tap for these teams.

Here are the opponents for each of the Super 25 schools in the nation this week, plus how to watch the games live.