Has South Florida football lost some of its luster?

Region's pride takes a hit on Week 1 of the Florida high school football season; Coconut Creek, American Heritage, Cardinal Gibbons, St. Thomas Aquinas, Western and Chaminade-Madonna all fall in the Broward Showcase, while Miami Central loses to Lakeland

Bishop Gorman's Jonathan Coar dives for extra yardage during the Gaels' 29-21 victory over St. Thomas Aquinas, Saturday afternoon at Aquinas, in the Broward County National Football Showcase. / Matt Christopher

South Florida boasts many of the top high school football programs in the nation, a source of great pride for the region. College football recruiters from every corner of the country flock to the area in hopes of securing commitments from a plethora of star-studded talent.

Despite this, the South Florida high school football scene is licking its collective wounds a bit this morning after a lost weekend against powerful opponents from outside the region and state during Week 1 of the Florida high school football season.

The marque event this past weekend, of course, was the Broward County National Football Showcase, a third year event which has attracted top high school football programs from across the nation. This year's showcase featured seven contests over three days, with three of them nationally televised on ESPN networks. Broward County programs went 1-6 in the event.

Granted, the three biggest match-ups on the BCNFS schedule featured South Florida squads facing a trio of national powers all ranked within the top six spots in the SBLive/SI Top 25 Preseason National High School Football Rankings, but with the contests on their own territory, Broward squads were expecting a higher level of success.

Monarch High got the only victory for the county with a thrilling, 30-29, win over Georgia's Peachtree Ridge, in the event's first contest on Thursday afternoon. The Knights fell behind early, 15-0, and did not lead until scoring the winning points midway through the fourth quarter.

Samari Reed, a 4-star wide receiver headed to Ole Miss, shifted to quarterback in the Wildcat formation, after the Knights got off to a slow start and rallied his team to victory. He ran the ball repeatedly from the formation and rushed for two scores, including the game-winning touchdown.

From there, things went downhill for the Dade County squads.

Also on Thursday night, Miami Northwestern celebrated the coaching debut of alumnus and recently retired NFL quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, with a 45-0 pasting of Coconut Creek, which hosted the two opening games of the BCNFS.

The Bulls, who hail from neighboring Dade County and certainly qualify as a South Florida team, got four first half touchdown passes from quarterback Leon Strawder and its defense stiffled Coconut Creek at every turn. The running clock was turned on early in the third quarter and Northwestern never looked back.

On Friday, American Heritage Plantation faced Milton (GA), the No. 6 team in the country, and lost, 37-28, at St. Thomas Aquinas in the first of the three nationally televised contests from that venue this weekend. The reigning Georgia Class 7A state champions, who lost to Western in last year's showcase, returned and extracted some revenge on the region as Miami quarterback commit Luke Nickel tossed a pair of touchdown passes and Georgia wide receiver-commit Ethan Barbour had over 100 yards receiving with one TD catch and one rushing touchdown.

Friday's other showcase contest saw Central Florida's Lake Mary travel to Cardinal Gibbons and roll to a 49-0 victory behind All-American quarterback Noah Grubbs. Friday's other blow to South Florida came outside the showcase in the form of a humbling 16-8 loss by Miami Central to Lakeland, a state championship power from the north-central part of Florida. Lakeland dominated Central's high-octane offense and mounted four scoring drives (three field goals) against the Rockets' defense.

Western was a part of the Broward County National Football Showcase once again this year and hosted famed Alabama program Hoover, also on Saturday night. The Wildcats and Buccaneers were locked in an a tight battle throughout, but Hoover's Matthew Daibes broke a 14-14 tie with a 38-yard field, with 18 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, and the Bucs held on for a 17-14 victory.

On Saturday, St. Thomas Aquinas and Chaminade-Madonna played highly competitive contests against No. 2 Bishop Gorman (Nevada) and No. 3 St. John Bosco (California), respectively, but each faltered in the second half to come up short. Gorman scored scored 12 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to prevail, 29-21 and St. John Bosco also blanked a mistake prone Chaminade-Madonna in the fourth quarter to pull out a 34-27 victory.

In final analysis, there is nothing to worry about with regard to football in South Florida. The region is blessed with the same abundance of talented players it has always enjoyed and the region will once again be the one to beat, in nearly every classification, when the state playoffs get underway.

It's top programs competed well in the BCNFS and had chances to win each of the nationally televised games before faltering in the second halves. On Monday, it will be back to practice in an effort to cleanup the mistakes and put in the work to come out on top the next time the national spotlight shines on the region.