WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The stakes will be high when Chaminade-Madonna visits Cardinal Newman on Friday night in a rematch of last season’s Florida high school football state championship game.
The Lions and Crusaders will renew their rivalry for the first time since Cardinal Newman delivered one of the biggest surprises of the 2025 season, defeating the four-time defending state champions from Chaminade-Madonna 17-14 in the FHSAA Class 1A championship game. The victory gave the Crusaders their first football state championship in school history.
Preview
Who: Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood, Fla.) at Cardinal Newman (West Palm Beach, Fla.)
When: 6:30 p.m. ET local
Where: Sam Budnyk Field at Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Tonight’s game could be a preview of another playoff tussle as both teams still rank among the Sunshine State’s elite programs. This time, however, the teams are competing as members of Class 2A where Cardinal Newman has fashioned a 5-1 record so far compared to Chaminade-Madonna’s 4-2 mark. The difference is negligible on paper, however, as Newman’s loss is to a 5-1 West Boca Raton squad that figures to make a deep postseason run, while Chaminade-Madonna has two respectable losses to national powers — Sierra Canyon of California and their rivals from St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale.
The teams’ previous meeting in last year’s Class 1A title tilt offered a blueprint for how Cardinal Newman can pull off another victory. The Crusaders got it done with a stout defense, holding the Lions scoreless in the third quarter of the championship game while making just enough plays on both sides of the ball to protect a narrow lead. Newman eventually built a two-score lead for insurance heading into the fourth quarter, and despite a fourth-quarter touchdown by the Lions, the Crusaders were able to hold on for the historic win.
Friday’s rematch provides Chaminade-Madonna an opportunity to avenge that loss, and the Lions will, no doubt, use the disappointment from last December’s championship game loss as motivation. Cardinal Newman, on the other hand, can draw from the confidence of knowing they finally reached the top of the mountain, and a win in this rematch might signal that last year’s championship was the beginning of a new chapter in the Crusaders’ history rather than a fluky upset.
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