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TALLAHASSEE | Mandarin’s five-year anniversary of the school’s first-ever football championship felt like one for the history books.
But the Mustangs were the ones learning painful lessons against a quarterback who was until this week committed to James Madison, a school named after Christopher Columbus and an edge rusher who carries the name of a former Pro Bowl football father.
Dizzying Mandarin with misdirection and toughness in the trenches, Miami Columbus turned the tables, beating the Mustangs 38-19 in Friday’s Florida High School Athletic Association Class 4M football championship at Bragg Memorial Stadium.
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Mandarin’s Tyler Jackson (22) and Carlos Witherup (9) talk after Friday’s game. Miami Columbus defeated Mandarin 38-19 for the Class 4M football championship.
Five years to the day after the Mustangs beat Columbus 37-35 in Orlando for their first-ever state title, quarterback Alberto Mendoza — a recent James Madison de-commit now exploring power-conference opportunities — led the charge.
Mendoza rushed for 137 yards, passed for 149 more and extinguished the Mustangs’ hopes of joining Raines as the only Jacksonville public schools to lift multiple FHSAA championships.
“We knew we were going to have to run with me, and I was expecting it,” Mendoza said. “So I’m just happy I could help my team get the victory.”
Not even the air tandem of Florida State-committed quarterback Tramell Jones and Alabama-bound wide receiver Jaime Ffrench, who linked up for 100 yards and two touchdowns, could sink the Explorers’ quest for a repeat.
“They’re fantastic,” Mandarin coach Toby Bullock said. “They’ve been here before and it shows that they’ve been here before.”
EXPLORERS SAIL TO EARLY LEAD
Early on, the ground game of Columbus (13-2) had too…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/history-lesson-miami-columbus-sinks-233522488.html
Author : The Florida Times-Union
Publish date : 2023-12-08 23:35:22
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