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Rockets Score 35 Unanswered To Pull Away From American Heritage

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Plantation, FL — For over a decade, Miami Central and American Heritage (Plantation) have been synonymous with state championships.  Since 2007, at least one of the two teams has won a state championship every year with the exception of 2017.  In 2021, only one of the two will have a chance to add another trophy to its trophy case as both are now in the same class of 5A.

The two teams met on a rainy Friday night in the regional semifinals with the winner projected to win the 5A state championship.  This game would live up to the season long hype…at least for a half.  

Central defeated Heritage 41-28 with sophomore wide receiver Joshiah Trader scoring two touchdowns in the second half to help the Rockets pull away.  Starting quarterback Keyone Jenkins accounted for three touchdowns and co-quarterback Dyllan Tulloch accounted for two more scores.  

Keyone Jenkins, Quarterback, Miami Central

“That’s my brother,” said Jenkins of Tulloch and dual-quarterback dynamic.  “It was a mental game for the quarterbacks.  We had to keep our composure because this game could have gone either way.  We had a lot of mistakes, we did not play our best football.”

Central was down by two scores in the first half due to turnovers. Jenkins threw an interception in the second quarter to safety Dameon Fagan and Tulloch tossed the football into the arms of Jamarcus Smith who would take it the distance 80 yards for a pick-six. 


The defensive touchdown would make it a 21-6 game in favor of the home team.

It was a back and forth affair for much of the first half as Jenkins opened up the scoring with a 43-yard touchdown run (extra point blocked).  Heritage would bounce back with a pair of Mark Fletcher touchdown runs to help the Patriots go up by two scores. 

Mark Fletcher, Running Back, American Heritage


Fletcher would run for 170 yards in a losing effort.


Central would battle back with a pair of touchdowns of their own.  Tulloch would find an opening on the right side and weave his way to the end zone for a 23-yard touchdown run (two-point conversion pass completed to Zaylan Reese). 


Running back Jonathan Harris would also find some room on the right side to score on a 15-yard touchdown run, but for the second time in the game, the extra point would be blocked. Heritage took a 21-20 lead into halftime.


“We just told them we need to clean up our mistakes and play Rocket football and we’ll be fine and we did that in the second half,” said Head Coach Roland Smith.  “If we got up on them by two touchdowns we thought we were going to win tonight.”

Jenkins started the second half and developed a rhythm throwing the football to Trader.  The 2024 prospect caught the football, avoided a would-be tackler, and took it the distance for a 58-yard touchdown in the third quarter. 


Later in the half, the two would connect again for a touchdown to help extend the Central lead to 14 (two-point conversion run in by Harris).


The Central defense had Patriot quarterback Brandon Inniss on the run for most of the game.  Linebacker Wesley Bissainthe was often running Inniss down or containing from picking up yards on the ground.  Junior defensive lineman Rueben Bain had registered a sack in the game and now has 23 sacks on the year. 

On a fourth down in the fourth quarter, Inniss threw the football up hoping someone would come down with the football, but the ball would fall harmlessly to the ground setting Central up in the red zone with the turnover on downs.  Tulloch would find Reese over the middle, which would essentially seal the victory for the Rockets.  The score made it a 41-21 late in the fourth quarter.


“This was the biggest game of the season,” said Jenkins.  “For us it was more like a statement game.”

Central marches on to face Miami Killian next week in the regional finals.  Killian defeated Stranahan 37-0 Thursday night.  Central is aiming for a third straight state title.

Photos Courtesy of Chuck Bethel Photography

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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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