Five-star WR Inniss makes plays on offense, defense to lead Heritage’s win at Gibbons

Brandon Inniss waited until deep into the second quarter Saturday to make his first catch and when he did, he turned to his own bench, flexed and called for “me.”

“Give me the [expletive] ball,” he barked.

By the end of Plantation American Heritage’s 21-2 win against Cardinal Gibbons, no one could keep it from him.

The five-star wide receiver finished his afternoon in Fort Lauderdale with seven catches for 81 yards and a touchdown, and also grabbed an interception right by the goal line to keep preserve his defense’s shutout of the Chiefs at Cardinal Gibbons High School’s Dr. Bud Tight Field.

In a meeting of two teams ranked in the top 25 of the entire country by MaxPreps, No. 13 American Heritage triumphed with star power to seize control of District 12-2M on the first day of October.

“My assistant coaches do an unbelievable job of getting these guys ready, but, at the end of the day, dude’s have got to be dudes,” Patriots coach Mike Smith said. “Inniss is, in my opinion, the best player in the country.”

Inniss, who’s South Florida’s No. 1 player in the 247Sports composite rankings for the Class of 2023, and four-star running back Mark Fletcher helped American Heritage flip the field late in the second quarter after the Patriots spent most of the half playing in their own territory, and star quarterback Blake Murphy put American Heritage up 7-2 on a sneak with 37.4 seconds left in the half.

It was all the cushion the Patriots needed. Even though the No. 25 Chiefs ran 29 plays in opposing territory in the first half, all they got out of it was two points on a safety, immediately after American Heritage (5-1) stuffed them on fourth down at the 1-yard line.

In all, Cardinal Gibbons (5-1) made six trips inside the Patriots’ 40, including four straight to start the game, and didn’t score on any of them.

“We were in a tough situation the whole first half and they came away with two points,” Smith said. That’s a hell of a job by our defense. They just didn’t break and they just kept coming.”

One of those first-half drives ended with a fumble at the 16 and another with an interception by star cornerback Shamar McNeil, who’s orally committed to the Missouri Tigers, and it let American Heritage go into halftime up 7-2 despite a 35-18 play disparity.

By halftime, the Patriots were back to their identity, with Fletcher up past 50 yards and the star senior kept pounding.

Fletcher, who’s orally committed to the Ohio State Buckeyes along with Inniss, broke off a 25-yard run — his longest of the game — on American Heritage’s second drive of the second half and Murphy hit Inniss for a 14-yard touchdown and 14-2 lead on the very next play.

Fletcher finished with 19 carries for 125 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown, and Murphy, who’s orally committed to the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks, made sure the passing game did enough to complement him by going 10 of 16 for 123 yards with no interceptions.

“He always just says, ‘Keep coming,’ and that’s what we do,” Fletcher said. “We just played Patriot football in the second half.”

The killing blow, however, came on defense from one of the best offensive players in the country.

Inniss’ foray into the secondary is a new development at American Heritage. He did for his first two years of high school at NSU University and TRU Prep Academy, but abandoned it to focus strictly on receiver in Plantation — until last week.

The Patriots were playing No. 6 Chaminade-Madonna last weekend and Inniss knew how loaded the Lions’ group of receivers is, so he asked if he could get in a little bit on defense. His coaches drew up a game plan and Inniss forced a fumble in his defensive debut.

In Game 2, he did even more.

With the Chiefs once again in enemy territory in the fourth quarter, Kamari Moulton found a hole up the middle and raced to the end zone, eager to break up the shutout, but Inniss tracked down the star running back, who’s orally committed to the FAU Owls, and dragged him down from behind at the 13.

On the very next play, American Heritage pressured Dylan Rizk — the Patriots sacked the star quarterback, who’s orally committed the UCF Knights, three times — and Inniss ended the drive with an interception.

American Heritage’s next drive went 66 yards and nine plays, and Fletcher finished off the win with a 5-yard touchdown run.

“I love football, so I love to be on the football field,” Inniss said. “Wherever I can play, whatever I can do for my team to win — that’s what I’ll do.”

This story was originally published October 1, 2022 at 5:07 PM.