Corner Canyon drops game to No. 2 St. Frances in Overtime national championship

BALTIMORE — His team didn't quite drop 60 Wednesday night, but Jaylen Burke and Saint Frances didn't need to.

Burke ran for over 100 yards and a touchdown, and Virginia running back signee Jae'Oyn Williams threw for three touchdowns as St. Frances — the second-ranked team in the country by MaxPreps — rallied to a 37-20 win over No. 23 Corner Canyon in the Overtime High School National Championship at Under Armor Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland.

Eli Borge scored a special-teams touchdown for Corner Canyon, the reigning three-time 6A Utah champions, who snapped a shutout streak after nearly two months that St. Frances has allowed a touchdown, in the third quarter.

Backup quarterback Bronson Evans threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes for the Chargers (12-2).

But highlights for the visiting team from the west didn't come nearly as often as for Baltimore's own. The "best in the west" in Overtime's first-of-its-kind high school championship with a $250,000 prize pool proved no match for the "beast from the east" in St. Frances.

The Baltimore school is a collection of talent that includes 16 Division I signees that eschews Maryland state championship play for a national schedule that includes wins over West Broward (Florida), No. 21 Chaminade-Madonna (Florida), and St. Joseph's Prep (Pennsylvania).

Burke ran for 92 yards in the first half, including a 9-yard touchdown, to open the second quarter and put St. Frances up 14-0.

Burke's 26-yard run set up Williams' second touchdown pass, an 18-yard strike to 6-foot-4, 250-pound tight end Michael Nnabuife that gave the Panthers a 21-0 lead with less than two minutes left in the half.

The Panthers (9-1), who haven't played since Nov. 1, showed off their defense with a dominant first half, holding the Chargers to -13 yards on the ground en route to a 21-0 halftime lead.

"They practice exactly the way they play. They never give up on a play," St. Frances coach Messay Hailemariam told ESPN at halftime. "We go after the football, we're always chasing it, we bend but we don't break, and we find a way to not let them score easily."

St. Frances totaled 194 yards of offense before the break, and held the Chargers to 147 yards that included 160 yards through the arm of Texas A&M quarterback signee Helaman Casuga.

Yes, Corner Canyon ran for negative yards and went 0-for-8 on third down before the break, while the Panthers converted all three of their red-zone chances.

It didn't get much better in the second half.

Williams found Oregon State commit Jesse Legree for a 14-yard touchdown to stretch St. Frances' lead to 28-0 midway through the third quarter.

Borg recovered Jaxon Evans' forced fumble on a punt attempt near the end zone with 35 seconds left in the third quarter, and Joaquin Rodriguez hauled in an interception to open the fourth for the Chargers.

But the Panthers added two more with a safety by Alabama commit Jireh Edwards, and Legree returned the ensuing kickoff 65 yards for another score to go up as much as 37-7.

Evans found Lucas Jackson for a touchdown with 7:41 left for the Chargers, then converted the fourth-and-15 play in lieu of an onside kick as part of the rally.

Corner Canyon went 0-for-11 on third downs, and Evans was sacked on fourth-and-10 at the 20-yard line to squash any attempted rally. The senior quarterback who led the Chargers to the 6A title as a junior after an injury to Casuga found Jesean Mayberry with five seconds left for the final margin.

Related topics