In the last weekend of the high school football season, two Orange commits from Florida walked away with state titles. Joshua Palmer’s St. Thomas Aquinas team routed Plant (Rex Culpepper and Scoop Bradshaw’s old school) 45-6 to win its third consecutive state title on Friday.
On Saturday night, Nadarius Fagan and Southridge fought from behind to beat Dr. Phillips 14-10 in their championship game. Southridge scored all of its points in the fourth quarter.
Palmer caught a touchdown in his team’s win. His 28-yard catch made the score 14-0 and Aquinas never looked back.
Watch Palmer’s touchdown here.
2017 St. Thomas Aquinas WR Joshua Palmer with a TD & Michael Harley (3) w/ a dance pic.twitter.com/J96OCbfwRz
— InsideTheU.com (@InsideTheU) December 10, 2016
After their respective games, both players took to Twitter to celebrate. Here’s Palmer with his teammates.
2016 State Champs!! BOMB SQUADDD!! @harleyxvi @_DBK8 @Joshua5Palmer @OnlyOne_Tk @jordanmerrell1 @e_moore03 @12kouuv @OchoStylin #History pic.twitter.com/6cHJDIcWlr
— Coach Holt (@IamGlennHolt) December 10, 2016
And Fagan with his.
THE RIDGE! SPARTANS 3x STATE CHAMPS
Congrats to @RidgeSpartansFB, Florida's 2016 Class 8A State Champshttps://t.co/d7pneGV8Uk
#FLgridiron pic.twitter.com/VZ0M9YC4gJ— FloridaGridironPreps (@FLgridironpreps) December 11, 2016
Tyran Hunt commits to Maryland
In terms of adding new players to SU’s 2017 class, the Orange took a few hits this week. Hunt, an offensive lineman, took an official visit to Syracuse in September, but now plans to sign with Maryland.
SU only has two o-linemen committed in its 2017 class (Dakota Davis and Patrick Davis), but remember the Orange signed Mike Clark, Sam Heckel, Liam O’Sullivan and Airon Servais last cycle. All of those players redshirted this past season.
Ben Moos commits to Utah
This news shouldn’t come as a major surprise to SU fans. Coming from Washington, the tight end was always going to be a tough get.
Yes, the Orange has Aaron Hackett in its 2017 class, so SU does have one tight end in the fold. But remember Cam MacPherson, Kendall Moore, and Josh Parris are all graduating, while Trey Dunkelberger plans to transfer so this is a position that will need more bodies in the future.
Follow The Fizz on twitter @OrangeFizz to stay up to date with SU basketball and football recruiting.
Posted: Connor Morrissette
