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Patriots Control Lions In Kickoff Classic, 20-13

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Plantation, FL — In the last six years, two of Florida’s best programs American Heritage (Plantation) and Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood) have combined for six state titles.  Both teams have at least made it to the state championship game since 2015. On Friday night, the teams met on the field for their preseason exhibition kickoff classic. Heritage got the best of Chaminade on the scoreboard with a 20-13 victory but both teams are positioned to continue their current reigns of dominance.

“We made a lot of big plays and a lot of mistakes,” said American Heritage Head Coach Pat Surtain.  “That’s to be expected in the first game.”

Senior quarterback Edwin Rhodes went 10 of 15 for 143 yards scoring two passing touchdowns and added a rushing touchdown.  The Patriot offense, which is known to have a strong running game over the years struggled running the football. The passing game, which was working for the majority of the night may be the new Patriot way.

“Sometimes you have to adjust to your personnel,” said Surtain.  “We have some dynamic receivers and we have a dynamic quarterback. It may not be like how it was in the past.”

One of those dynamic receivers is sophomore receiver Jacolby Spells who scored first for the Patriots catching a 22-yard pass from Rhodes.  The 2020 QB scored himself using his legs to get into the endzone right before the half with some nifty moves to avoid tacklers. The Patriots took a 14-3 lead into the locker room. 

“I told him this year before the season that I was going to give him the keys to the Cadillac,” said Surtain of Rhodes.  “He took it and ran with it. He has complete control of the offense, he can make all the checks, all the throws, and he showed some mobility tonight.  He is one of the best quarterbacks in Florida.”

Maybe Rhodes’s best throw of the night came in the 3rd quarter when he found fellow senior Douglas Emilien streaking down the sideline for a 35-yard touchdown. 


The Patriots of Plantation were eliminated by their rival Cardinal Gibbons (Fort Lauderdale) last season in the 5A regional final.  Gibbons went on to win the state title and also moved to 4A leaving the 5A state title up for grabs. The back-to-back 6A state champions Miami Northwestern and back-to-back 4A state champions Raines (Jacksonville) both join 5A making the road for the Patriots to continue their dynasty that much harder.   

Chaminade’s Thaddius Franklin was the bright spot on offense for the Lions Friday night.  The junior Miami Hurricanes commit broke out for a fifty-yard run and scored on the next play from five yards out.  Franklin finished with 143 yards rushing and the one TD. 

The Lions of Hollywood are coming off back-to-back state championship seasons and are going for the three-peat under Head Coach Dameon Jones.  The last time Chaminade failed to win the state title was in 2016 when the Lions lost to Trinity Christian (Jacksonville). Trinity moved up to 5A after that season and Chaminade took home two 3A state championships the following two years.  Now that the classes have realigned this year, Trinity and Chaminade find themselves back in the same class of 3A.

The preseason game ran ten-minute quarters and a running clock in the fourth quarter.  

Chaminade kicks off the regular season at McArthur (Hollywood) while Heritage will open the season at home against Monsignor Pace (Miami).

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Marcus Benjamin works as the senior writer and editor for FootballHotbed.com. He attended Florida A&M and Florida Memorial University completing a bachelors degree in communications in 2010. He's covered high school football in the South Florida area since 2010 for the Miami Herald, Miami Sports Tribune and ShawSports.net. He is married and lives in Fort, Lauderdale, FL.

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