MIAMI — When Malachi Toney first arrived at American Heritage three years ago as a freshman, he came with a nickname from his youth league play.
“He was called, ‘Baby Jesus,’ and I said there is no way I was going to call a kid that,” said American Heritage coach Mike Smith, following the Patriots’ 40-31 victory over Orlando Jones in Friday night’s Class 4A state championship game. “Tonight, he was ‘Baby Jesus.’ The way that kid carried us the last three or four weeks and put us on his back.”
Toney, a UM commit, started off the night 15 of 15 for 188 yards and one TD before throwing an incompletion on his first pass of the fourth quarter at Pitbull Stadium on the campus of FIU.
He finished 15 of 18 for 188 yards and added 21 yards and another score in just his third start of the season at quarterback following the season-ending ankle injury to four-star recruit Dia Bell, who is committed to Texas.
“I just did what I do best and that’s be myself,” said Toney, who hadn’t played quarterback since little league. “Words can’t express how I feel right now. Dia sent me clips and that helped. I’m happy to win my first state title.”
Where Toney left off in the first half, senior running back Byron Louis picked up the slack as he broke a 31-31 deadlock with 8:54 remaining in the game with an 80-yard scoring jaunt to give the Patriots (12-2) the lead for good. Louis had 134 of his 223 yards in the decisive fourth.
Louis, a UF commit, closed out the contest with 29 carries for 223 yards and two TDs. Jamar Denson had 86 yards receiving and one score, while Brandon Bennett returned the kickoff 97 yards for a TD to open the second half.
“I feel blessed,” Louis said. “That was a great football team. They came out here and they fought. They fought to the very end, even when we were taking a knee in the victory (formation).
“My family and I prayed for this every day,” Louis said. “When I first came to American Heritage, I thought I would get a ring all four years and fell short. We lost in the state final. We lost in the third or fourth rounds, but I get to go out my senior year with a state championship.”
Louis said the team has battled adversity all season long. His biggest play of the night may not have been the 80-yard scoring run but an 8-yard gain on third-and-7 with a little more than one minute remaining to ice the game.
“You have to credit our coaches and my teammates, we never quit,” Louis said. “The goal is to score every time. (On the touchdown run) we ran an inside zone to the left and the guard and center combo’d on the linebacker and I just let God do the rest.”
American Heritage linebacker Isaac Tanis had a key strip sack and fumble recovery for the Patriots late to set up Harvey’s game-clinching 28-yard field goal with 4:45 left in the game that put the Patriots up by two scores.
“This feels amazing man,” Tanis said. “I knew we had to come up with a big play and I just went for the ball and got it. The offense played a great game, and the defense had to step up. That was the biggest play of my life, and I am happy I was able to get it in the state finals and showcase my abilities.”
It was the most points allowed in a game all season by the Tigers as the teams combined for more than 800 yards of offense.
“We played defense when we had to,” Smith said. “Those guys have been a highly criticized group, but they stepped up when we needed them to and that’s been the story of this team all year. We don’t make anything easy.
“That’s why we played the schedule that we played,” Smith added, “Regardless of the situation, they are not fazed by it. These guys continue to battle, and they continue to believe. Their momentum swung, but these guys continued to swing back. They were not going to be denied. They said enough’s enough and they broke through tonight and did it.”
Orlando Jones took the opening kickoff and marched 75 yards in nine plays capped by an 18-yard quarterback keeper by Dereon Coleman for the TD with 7:32 remaining in the first quarter. American Heritage cut the lead to 7-3 on a 31-yard field goal by Gavin Harvey.
American Heritage took the lead at 10-7 with 9:09 remaining in the second quarter as Toney hit Denson on a 26-yard scoring pass.
Orlando Jones’ Kason Mullis knotted the score at 10-10 when he drilled a 41-yard field goal before the Patriots went right back down the field moving 84 yards capped by a 1-yard run by Toney with 1:32 remaining in the first half
The second half started with Bennett’s 97-yard kickoff return for a 24-10 lead. Orlando Jones, however, came right back and trimmed the deficit to 24-17 on a 1-yard run by Coleman, his second touchdown of the night.
Undaunted, Toney led the Patriots right back down the field and Louis went in from 3 yards out to extend the lead to 31-17 with 2:51 left in the third quarter.
For the first time in 15 years, four teams from Broward and Palm Beach counties won football championships (Miramar, Dwyer, American Heritage-Delray and Glades Day all won in 2009). And for the 23rd consecutive season, there was at least one state champ from at least one of the counties.
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