District 15-5A has plenty of talented teams and two of them squared of Friday night when the American Heritage Patriots of Plantation traveled across Broward county to take on the Hallandale Chargers. American Heritage (4-1, 1-0) had yet to take to take on in-county opponent traveling all over North and Central Florida before finally taking on Hallandale (2-3, 1-2) in its first district contest.
Instant Analysis: Coming in I knew both teams possessed Division I talent. American Heritage showed their talent early getting things under way quick with a 75 yard touchdown pass from Tyler Cogswell, an Arkansas commit, on the second play from scrimmage.
Hallandale adjusted the game plan accordingly allowing only 81 passing yards the rest of the night, but American Heritage had more weapons to work with against Hallandale to open the game up wide.
For American Heritage, they truly have one of the best running backs in the country for the 2014 class with Sony Michel. Michel ran for 116 yards on 18 carries with a touchdown. Afterwards, Michel said that “Winning the first district game was big and now we are on top.”
With Hallandale they have been starting freshman quarterback, Tyler Huntley. Huntley is talented for his age and shows tremendous promise for the future but he threw two costly picks and just was not getting enough help from his offensive line and receivers.
At halftime Hallandale was trailing 17-3 and the American Heritage defense was smelling blood in the water. Michael Deeb, a Notre Dame commit, is a stud of a linebacker for the Patriots. He remind me of Brian Urlacher who is very physically imposing and makes tackles easily. ” We overcame a lot of mistakes and we played great.” said Deeb. Deeb was a key contributor in only allowing Hallandale to get 3 points during the game.
Key stat: Three. American Heritage athlete Isaiah McKenzie had three touchdowns on the night. Two of his touchdown came on the receiving receiving end and had also accounted for 2 interceptions, one which was returned for 47 yard touchdown. McKenzie who is only a junior, showed great athleticism and is a rising football star for American Heritage.
Post game quote: American Heritage head coach Jeff Dellenbach said, “It was the whole team playing. It was special teams, it was offense, it was defense and that’s what we’ve been preaching. I think we really grew tonight.”
American Heritage is back at next week as they take on Class 2A Hialeah Champagnat (1-3, 1-2). Hallandale goes on the road to battle Class 6A Pembroke Pines Flanagan (4-2, 2-1).
You can follow Nash Williams on Twitter @Nashwilliams1
