JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It’s state championship game week and Raines is the last area team still standing. Here’s a glance at the Class 3A state title game between Raines and Miami Northwestern.
Class 3A state championship
Raines (13-0) vs. Miami Northwestern (13-0)
When: Friday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Pitbull Stadium, Florida International University
Road here: Raines beat Baker County, 43-6; beat West Florida, 54-0; beat Bishop Kenny, 61-15; beat Sarasota Booker, 28-8; Miami Northwestern beat Somerset Academy, 70-0; beat Key West 56-6; beat Miami Central, 50-29; beat Orlando Bishop Moore, 52-21.
Glance: A rematch a year in the making. The Vikings emphatically believed after last year’s loss that they would learn from it and be right back in the game. The Vikings went out and proved that every week. The Vikings averaged 50.5 ppg and gave up just 69 points all season. Reigning offensive player of the year TJ Cole has followed up his dynamic junior season with an unbelievable senior season (2,609 passing yards, 39 TDs) and has far more support than he did a year ago. The ground game has a two-headed monster in Tadarius Washington (842 rushing yards, 13 TDs) and Tisean Haynes (676 rushing yards, 14 TDs). The receivers have been elite. Ziyon Butler is the all-time leading yardage receiver and has 1,020 yards and 17 TDs this season. Ethan Sherman and Kelvin Brown Jr. have amassed more than 1,200 yards and combined for 17 TDs. That production has allowed Cole to become a truly elite player in his final season. He’s still capable of keeping it and ripping off a big run, but his depth of playmakers has allowed Cole to become a surgeon in the pocket. Defense is where the Vikings have also taken a massive jump. DE Troy Butler has 23 tackles for loss and nine sacks and is tied with LB Travis Williams for the team lead in tackles with 64. The 32 team sacks seem low for a team like Raines, but the disruption and havoc created by this defense is shown more in the takeaway total (23) and defensive TDs (11). The Vikings are a wrecking crew. They’ve got really good presence on the line with Geterius Brown, Chenaniah Doran and Makhel Smith-York. Pressure off the edge and from up the middle can come from any player, but Butler, Travis Williams, and Tony Williams are very good at that. Head coach Donovan Masline was on Deran Wiley’s staff that won back-to-back titles in 2017-18. In Wiley’s first title game as head coach, Raines led in the fourth quarter against Miami Booker T. Washington before a disastrous finish in a 43-23 loss. The next time around, Wiley and the Vikings were dialed in and won, and then won again. Could Masline’s journey follow that same path? … Northwestern is 7-2 in all-time in state championship games, including 2-0 against teams from the area (Sandalwood in 1995, Raines in 2024). They are 2-0 in title games in Miami. No Teddy Bridgewater on the sidelines this year for the Bulls. Bridgewater returned to the NFL after he was handed a one-year suspension for providing benefits that weren’t allowed by the FHSAA. Raines is 3-3 all-time in championship games, winning in 1997, 2017, ’18. They are 0-2 in games in South Florida stadiums (Pitbull and in Fort Lauderdale). The Bulls are going to test that Raines defense. Sophomore QB Neiman Lawrence has 32 TD passes and just one interception this season. His big target is 6-5 pass catcher Calvin Russell Jr., a five-star playmaker and Syracuse pledge who had two TD catches on just four receptions against Raines last year. On defense, DE Demarcus King (13 sacks, 33 TFL) is the player the offense needs to account for.