Raines will play for the state title on Saturday night. Here’s what you need to know

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Raines football team is playing for a state championship on Saturday night in Miami. Here’s what you need to know about the showdown.

Title game coverage

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Who and what

Raines is 13-0 and is the No. 1 seed faces No. 2 seed Miami Northwestern (11-2) for the Class 3A state championship.

Nuts and bolts

Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Pitbull Stadium at Florida International University.

Watch it

The game will be streamed on the NFHS Network. Cost for a monthly pass is $11.99.

Road here

Northwestern d. Barron Collier, 69-0; d. Lely, 64-12; d. Cypress Lake, 48-0; d. Eau Gallie, 40-0; Raines d. Bay, 53-14; d. Wakulla, 63-7; d. Bishop Kenny, 44-15; d. Sarasota Booker, 28-23.

The history

Raines has been to the state championship game five times in its decorated history, winning Class 3A titles in 1997, 2017 and ‘19. It finished as state runner-up in 1973 and 2015. Northwestern has seven championships in nine tries (1995, 1998, 2006, 2007, 2017, 2018, 2019), all coming in Class 5A or 6A.

The coaches

Both Donovan Masline (below) of Raines and Teddy Bridgewater of Northwestern are alums of their schools. Masline, 33, is a 2008 grad of Raines who went on to play in college at Alabama State. Bridgewater, 32, was a 2011 grad of Northwestern who went on to star in college at Louisville before becoming a first-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings in 2014. He spent time with six NFL teams before retiring last year. This is his first year coaching his alma mater.

Northwestern players to watch

QB Leon Strawder (2,677 passing yards, 41 TDs); RB King Davis (803 rushing yards, 8 TDs); WR Darius Johnson (785 receiving yards, 9 TDs); WR Nicholas Lennear (657 receiving yards, 11 TDs); Calvin Russell Jr. (645 receiving yards, 11 TDs); LB Desmon Johnson (83 tackles, 3 INTs); DB Lineten Belizaire (19 tackles, 3 INTs).

Raines players to watch

QB TJ Cole (2,812 passing yards, 43 TDs; 872 rushing yards, 9 TDs); RB Ta’darius Washington (939 rushing yards, 17 TDs); WR Adron Walker (767 receiving yards, 16 TDs); WR Ziyon Butler (595 receiving yards, 9 TDs); WR Kaleb Lampkins (527 receiving yards, 9 TDs); WR Andreus Cox (325 receiving yards, 5 TDs); LB Tony Williams (101 tackles, 16 TFL); LB Micah Merritt (82 tackles, 10 TFL); DE Troy Butler (79 tackles, 21 TFL, 7.5 sacks); DL Jyon Simon (67 tackles, 18.5 TFL, 11 sacks); DE King Massey (66 tackles, 23 TFL, 7 sacks); DL Geterius Brown (55 tackles, 12.5 TFL, 6.5 sacks).

On Raines

Former Duval County Schools superintendent Nikolai Vitti tried to get the Duval-Miami rivalry going during his tenure. That included getting Raines and Northwestern together on the field in 2013 and ‘14. The Bulls won 25-7 in the first installment and 8-7 in the second. Since then, games against Miami-Dade or Broward counties have been sparse. Raines has played North Miami Beach (61-0 win in 2015), Miami Booker T. Washington (43-23 loss in 2015 title game) and Monsignor Pace (19-13 win in 2022) over the last 10 seasons. … Both schools have tradition that runs deep. According to Pro Football Reference, Raines has had 25 players log at least a season or more in the NFL. The Vikings have had 19 players selected in the NFL draft. … Raines is 0-2 in state title games against teams from Dade County, losing to Washington in 2015 and to Hollywood Hills (22-9) in 1973.

Raines has been on a mission this season. QB TJ Cole has accounted for 52 TDs (43 passing, nine rushing) and is just three scoring passes away from Nease’s Tim Tebow’s 2004 season mark of 46 and four from De’Andre Johnson’s 2014 area record of 47. Cole threw his first interception since Oct. 5 in the playoff win over Booker last week. He’s played turnover-free football nine of Raines’ 13 games. WR Adron Walker has been spectacular this year. The First Coast transfer was a very good player last season for the Buccaneers but he’s become a weekly highlight reel at Raines. Walker has doubled his TD total every year, going from four to eight to his current 16 TDs. Fellow WRs Ziyon Butler and Kaleb Lampkins have nine TD grabs apiece. That trio has accounted for 1,889 yards. Andreus Cox is the No. 4 pass catcher and he’s got five TDs. On defense, Raines is nasty tough. LB Tony Williams, DEs Troy Butler and King Massey and DLs Jyon Simon and Geterius Brown are controlled havoc in the front. S Eddie Hinton has five of Raines’ 15 interceptions.

On Northwestern

While Raines has a decorated NFL lineup, the Bulls’ history is even deeper. PFR lists 41 Bulls players with NFL service, a number that ranks second in Florida behind only St. Thomas Aquinas (48). …

Northwestern’s first state championship in 1995 came in a slugfest over powerful running back Frankie Franklin and Sandalwood in a 12-7 game. The Bulls have seven state championships in program history and were state runner-up in two other games. They last won a title in 2019. The Bulls turned to Bridgewater (below) after two un-Northwestern-like seasons. The Bulls were one and done in the playoffs in 2022 and then tumbled to 4-6 last year, their first sub-.500 season since 2014. The Bulls have plowed through a challenging schedule, losing to just Venice (48-42 in OT) and Miami Norland (21-17). Venice is in the Class 7A state championship game and Norland finished 9-3 and lost to Plantation American Heritage in the Class 4A regional final. Northwestern also notched a win over Columbus (23-18), the team that beat Mandarin for the Class 4M title last year. The Bulls obliterated their four playoff opponents by a combined 221-12. Their strength of schedule comes in quite a bit higher than Raines, according to MaxPreps.