High School Football: Chaminade Overcomes Mother Nature and Roosevelt Thursday

If you've heard the well-worn phrase, "this game was not as close as the score would indicate," sit back and try to digest how a 63-34 game could possibly make you feel that the opposite were true.

That's one way of interpreting what happened at Roosevelt High School Thursday night, as and the homestanding Roughriders did battle a little earlier in the week than expected.

The teams moved up what would have been a 1 p.m Saturday game .

In stark contrast to last season, , the Roughriders used big plays by quarterback Codi Burgess to wide receivers Terence Davis and Gary Darden and Chaminade miscues with ball security and the extra point unit to take a 28-16 lead in the third quarter.

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But a snap that Burgess wasn't expecting was recovered in the endzone by Chaminade to cut the lead to 28-23. On Roosevelt's next possession, the drive ended deep in Red Devil territory when freshman defensive back Roderick Campbell picked off a Burgess pass at the Chaminade 14 yard line.

The Red Devils turned around and mounted a drive that ended with running back Dominique Bobo in the endzone to retake the lead at 29-28 with 1:39 left in the period. The next two Roosevelt possessions ended with Chaminade interceptions for touchdowns  by Campbell and sophomore Sam Frelich.

Roosevelt answered with a 65 yard touchdown pass where Burgess hit his receiver in stride and it was off to the races from there cutting the Chaminade lead to 9. 

But the Red Devils would rattle off 20 unanswered points, thanks to a Hunter Forte touchdown run, a third Campbell interception, a John Cusumano touchdown run and another interception return for a touchdown by Frelich to provide the final margin.

"We kind of stepped on our own foot and luckily the defense I thought picked us up, we got some interceptions and scored that way because we weren't moving the ball," Chaminade Head Coach Doug Taylor said after the game.

The Red Devils (1-1) came into the contest with an extra day of "rest" than Roosevelt, which lost last Saturday to Soldan. Taylor said his team got a full-pads practice in on Monday, which is usally a half-pads practice day, in addition to the full practices Tuesday and Wednesday.

The early game Thursday gives Taylor time to prepare his squad for the team's home opener against Ft. Zumwalt West next Friday.