Neimann Lawrence stars in Northwestern's regional win over Central

MIAMI — In the biggest football game of his life, Miami Northwestern sophomore quarterback Neimann Lawrence didn't just embrace the spotlight.

He owned it.

Lawrence, one of the top quarterback recruits in the class of 2028, threw seven touchdowns passes as the Bulls dominated rival Miami Central 50-29 in the Region 4-3A championship game on Nov. 29 at Traz Powell Stadium.

"Going into the game I was nervous, but once I get on the field, I just let myself play, let my hard work speak for itself," Lawrence said. "Just really go out there and execute. We knew we could play with these guys, we knew we could put up points, and that's what we did."

Lawrence spread the ball around, too. Syracuse commit Calvin Russell, FAU commit Nicsaint Joseph and junior Nick Lennear each caught two touchdown passes and senior Marcus Dumont caught one.

"All the guys eating when there's talent everywhere," Russell said. "You try to double team 5 (Russell), 2 (Lennear), we've got 7 (Joseph), 6 (Kenyan Thompkins), 10 (Dumont). You can't really stop us."

Northwestern (12-0) jumped out to a 22-0 lead in the first quarter and never trailed in the game.

Lawrence opened the game with a 32-yard touchdown pass to Russell, then added touchdown passes to Lennear and Joseph in the quarter.

"We were clicking on all cylinders," Lawrence said. "The running game, the passing game. It was all fluid tonight. We were able to show our offense on full display. They said our offense wasn't a high-level offense, so we just had to prove ourselves."

Central (10-2) responded in the second quarter with three touchdowns, including a scoop-and-score after a strip sack by Damien Harvey to cut the lead to 29-22 at the half.

The teams traded touchdowns in the third quarter to keep the game close, but the Bulls offense pulled away late.

Lennear and Russell each caught touchdown passes in the fourth quarter. Russell punctuated the final score by hitting Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry's signature 'night night' pose. He first posed for the cameras behind the end zone, then held it as he bounced toward the Northwestern sideline.

"We've been talking about this all week in practice," Russell said. "We wanted to come out here and dominate these people. They couldn't sit with us at all. The way the offense has been going, there's no messing with us."

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Miami Northwestern QB Neimann Lawrence throws 7 TDs against Central