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Hollywood, FL — Four Miami Hurricanes commitments took the stage Friday night at Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory, as the home team welcomed American Heritage (Plantation) in an early matchup of perennial South Florida powers.
The three for Chaminade-Madonna: running back Thaddius Franklin, defensive tackle Allan Haye, and defensive end Jamaal Johnson
The one for American Heritage: safety James Williams
Williams and Heritage would emerge victorious on this night as American Heritage (Plantation) started its season with a 7-3 slugfest over the defending 3A state champions Chaminade-Madonna.
.@CanesFootball 2021 commit James Williams @Begreat_20 of @AHPatriotsFB runs down the quarterback here for the sack. pic.twitter.com/xUkpXgjlMK
— Marcus Benjamin (@_BenjaminReport) September 18, 2020
“We won but we could have gotten more points than that,” said Williams after the game. “From the defense everythings good, still mental errors but we gotta get better.”
Williams lined up at several different positions during the game. The five-star lined up at cornerback, outside linebacker as well as safety. Williams explained that the change of positions were adjustments made during the game to contain the Chaminade attack. The Chaminade Lions registered 155 yards of total offense.
“It was an in-game adjustment and we moved on from there,” said Williams with confidence. “Really it was on the fly, I adjusted to it and I’m going to be great.”
Williams unofficially had two sacks and three tackles for losses with a couple of quarterback pressures.
The gameplan for Heritage, simple, contain four-star running back Thaddius Franklin. The American Heritage Patriots accomplished this goal, for the most part, holding Franklin to 83 yards rushing on 14 carries. Franklin did break loose for a 57-yard run, but a fumble on a quarterback exchange turned the ball back over to Heritage in the fourth quarter.
.@CanesFootball commit Thaddius Franklin @Gucciboypopo breaks a 57-yard run. pic.twitter.com/Pay5tAZWd0
— Marcus Benjamin (@_BenjaminReport) September 19, 2020
Turnovers were a constant theme throughout the game as the two defenses dominated all night. Senior Boogsie Silvera recovered the first fumble of the game deep into Chaminade territory only for Heritage to give it right back to Chaminade with a fumble recovery of their own by Johnson. Johnson, committed to Miami’s 2022 class, would also unofficially have one sack and a forced fumble in the game. The Lions forced four turnovers as a team.
“They are a good defense,” said Head Coach Pat Surtain. “It’s hard to move those guys. They have really good players in the secondary. We just didn’t execute, plain and simple. We didn’t execute like we expected to but they had a lot to do with that. We are going to take the win all day. We are not going to give that win back. We only scored seven points, we left a lot of points on the board.”
The only points the Patriots did get on the board came from their new starting quarterback, Blake Murphy. Murphy, who has earned the nickname of Kyler Murray, the former Heisman Trophy winner, was harassed all night by the Chaminade defense but managed to get to the end zone by tucking and running for the pylon late in the second quarter. The ball was dislodged at the goal line by Johnson, but the referees ruled the play a touchdown. It was was the only touchdown scored in the game. The Patriots totaled 162 yards on offense with Murphy completing 5 of his 13 passes for 37 yards throwing two interceptions.
HALFTIME: @AH__Athletics takes a 7-3 lead into the break over Chaminade as quarterback @humbleqb7 Blake Murphy gets the corner for the touchdown. pic.twitter.com/200dPxbDXt
— Marcus Benjamin (@_BenjaminReport) September 19, 2020
“He hung in there,” said Coach Surtain about his quarterback. “Tough kid, playing a really aggressive defense. I thought he hung in there well. He’ll learn from it. He’s a very talented kid.”
On the other side, the quarterback position was played by both Brady Kelly and Jaylan Tolbert. Kelly completed 4 of his 13 passes for 68 yards and Tolbert completed one out of three passes for 8 yards including a crucial interception late in the game that would ultimately seal the Lions fate. The interception, made by Dameon Fagan, a sophomore inserted into the game after starting safety Silvera was removed from the game after an unsportsmanlike penalty. Fagan also made a touchdown-saving tackle on Franklin on the 57-yard run.
“That’s what we expect, we’re deep in the secondary, we’re deep on defense it’s the next man up mentality,” said Surtain. “He’s a talented kid and we definitely look forward to him doing special things.”
American Heritage’s 2019 season came to an end with a close loss to the eventual champions of 5A Miami Northwestern in the regional final. It was the closest loss Northwestern had in the playoffs last year so one can theoretically assume that Heritage was the second-best team in the class last year and were one score away from winning a championship.
“We got to get back to playing football the Heritage way,” stated Coach Surtain. “First game, you expect things to be sloppy. We’ll go ahead and learn from it and be better going forward.”
Franklin left the game with about six minutes to go in the game with a leg injury and did need assistance getting off the field. He did not return after the injury.
Heritage continues its schedule at Clearwater High School next week and Chaminade travels to Fort Myers to take on 2021 Miami commit Malik Curtis and Bishop Verot.
