American Heritage football cruises in season opener inspired by ailing teammate’s return

Faced with more obstacles than they probably cared to deal with, most of which was an ailing teammate, Plantation American Heritage showed up Saturday night a bunch of determined and focused players.

With defensive lineman Timothy Burroughs-Love on the sideline after being released from the hospital the day before, they used that energy to put together an impressive 45-20 rout of St. John’s (Washington, D.C.) before a packed house at Heritage Field.

It was the seventh and final game over three days of the second Annual Broward County National Football Showcase. Broward teams went 5-2 for the event and are a combined 11-3 over the event’s two seasons.

This night belonged to Burroughs-Love who was honored before the game along with the Heritage trainers and doctors who saved his life, resuscitating him when he collapsed and went in to cardiac arrest on the sideline during the first quarter of last week’s preseason classic against Booker T. Washington at Traz Powell Stadium.

After graduating 27 seniors off last year’s state runner-up team, the Patriots entered Saturday night’s game with an entirely revamped team with a lot of question marks. Saturday’s contest against a team ranked No. 26 nationally by Max Preps and one that nearly came all the way back to beat Chaminade-Madonna in last year’s Showcase, would be their first test, one in which they easily met the challenge.

“It was a really difficult week for sure but these kids responded the way I expected them to respond,” Heritage coach Mike Smith said. “They’re trained to do that. The same thing with Tim last week. He was built to come back from that. And there he was on our sideline tonight so that just tells you about the heart of that kid. To battle through what he had to go through in the hospital all week, our kids fed clearly off of that tonight. Just unbelievable.”

Smith watched his “new-look” team struggle a bit early on giving up a long St. John’s opening drive to start the game (resulting in a missed field goal) and a quick unsuccessful drive on offense resulting in a punt.

Then came the spark Heritage needed. On the first play after that punt, St. John’s quarterback Isaiah French fumbled the handoff to running back Da’Jaun Riggs in the backfield. Heritage defensive lineman Kymani Morales was right there to scoop up the loose ball and headed straight for the end zone for a 23-yard scoop-and-score to put the Patriots up 7-0.

After the Cadets responded with an 80-yard scoring drive – kept alive when Riggs took off on a 32-yard run from punt formation on 4th-and-11 – to cut their deficit to 7-6 (extra point missed), Heritage responded with another long scoring drive led by sophomore quarterback Dia Bell.

Making his first start, Bell was a perfect 4-for-4 on the next drive and even though they had to settle for a 32-yard Gavin Harvey field goal and 10-6 lead with 6:01 left in the second quarter, Heritage had the momentum back.

It was here that the Patriots then seized complete control of the game.

The defense stuffed St. John’s with a three-and-out on the next series and, following a five-yard punt, Heritage was set up at the Cadet 24. It took just two plays to find the end zone as Bell completed two passes, the second one to a wide open Malachi Toney in the corner of the end zone.

After the Pats defense got another three-and-out, Bell took over at midfield and went right back down the field again with a seven play drive, hitting Brandon Bennett over the middle for a 20-yard score with 53 seconds left to put Heritage up 24-6 at the break.

Even though the Heritage defense gave up a few yards on the ground during the evening (Riggs, an Oregon commit led all rushers in the game with 163 yards), they more than made up for it with big plays.

The next one came on St. John’s first series in the second half when linebacker Omar Thornton reached up to block a French pass attempt and wound up picking it off giving his offense a short field at the Cadets 44. Five plays later, running back Deandre Desinor bolted through a hole up the middle for a 17-yard score to make it 31-6.

Then it was time for the defense’s curtain call on the next series. That when Morales made another big play, breaking through to not only sack French but strip the ball from him. Defensive tackle Omarion Abraham then scooped up the loose ball at the 50 and it was off to the races for the team’s second scoop-and-score touchdown of the night.

That made it 38-6 with 3:54 left in the third quarter and had Burroughs-Love smiling and celebrating with his teammates on the sideline.

“Tim was a real big part of what we did out there tonight,” said Morales who finished his night with two sacks, the strip and a half dozen tackles. “For sure it was a tough week. The energy level was low because we had to worry about Tim getting out of the hospital. We had a lot going through our heads and Tim, he always called us and let us to know to push forward and keep being great and finish it out for him. So that’s what we did.”

Morales also said he was inspired by all of the doubters out there that figured having lost so many players from last season, that the Patriots would be vulnerable.

“The fact that so many people doubted us because we lost so many seniors from last year’s team really got me going,” said Morales. “We were out to prove everybody wrong and made a statement out there tonight.”

Smith was particularly happy with the performance of his young quarterback. Bell finished his night 15-of-20 passing for 153 yards and the two scoring tosses to Toney and Bennett.

“Dia had a really good summer, a really good camp season and a really good 7 on 7 season,” Smith said. “But we all know that live bullets is a whole new thing and tonight was the real thing. We didn’t know what we had and he came out here tonight and played with a lot of poise, a really good step forward for him.”

Bell also executed the offense cleanly, not throwing an interception or fumbling.

“It actually wasn’t as tough as I thought it might be,” Bell said. “Because that’s where having a great coaching staff and great players around you comes in. The coaches really know how to prepare you and then I know I’ve got a lot of great players surrounding me and that helps me relax. Coach Mike just kept telling me to go out there and play my game and that’s what I did.”