MIAMI — Late in Plantation American Heritage’s Class 4A state championship victory Friday night, the jubilant black and gold clad fans in the stands began chanting their running back’s name.
“By-ron Lou-is! By-ron Louis!” they repeated.
Quarterback Malachi Toney put on an offensive show in the first half. The second half of the Patriots’ wild 40-31 win against Orlando Jones, though, belonged to Louis, who broke a 31-all tie with a scintillating 80-yard touchdown run with 8:54 left.
Louis rushed for 221 yards on 29 carries and two touchdowns and Toney completed 15 of 18 passes for 188 yards – 148 of them in the first half — and one touchdown. He also rushed for a touchdown.
But in an offensive shootout, it also took one crucial defensive play for Heritage (12-2) to capture its sixth state championship and stop previously unbeaten Jones (14-1) from winning its first.
After Louis’ TD run gave Heritage the lead back, defensive end Isaac Tanis sacked Jones quarterback Dereon Coleman, forcing a fumble that Tanis recovered at Jones’ 34-yard line. Louis then carried the ball four consecutive plays and Heritage ultimately kicked a 28-yard field goal to seal the victory.
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“We played defense when we needed to,” Heritage coach Mike Smith said. “They’ve been a highly criticized group, but those guys stepped up when we needed them to.
“And that’s been the story of this team the whole year. We don’t make anything easy. …But any situation, they’re not fazed by it. These guys continued to battle and look, the momentum swung but these guys continued to swing back. They were not going to be denied tonight.”
Malachi Toney replaced injured Dia Bell at quarterback during season
Toney, a receiver who had to move under center during the season because of an injury to Heritage starting quarterback Dia Bell, completed his first 15 passes, including a dart down the middle of the field to Jamar Denson for a 26-yard touchdown in the second quarter. The Miami Hurricanes signee’s 1-yard scoring run with 1:23 left in the half gave Heritage a 17-10 lead heading into the locker room.
“He came to us three years ago and his nickname was literally Baby Jesus,” Smith recounted. “And I said, ‘I ain’t calling no kid Baby Jesus.’ Well, that’s Baby Jesus, the way this kid through the last three, four weeks has put the team on his back.”
American Heritage started the second half with a bang, seizing a two-touchdown lead on Brandon Bennett’s 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Jones countered quickly with a four-play, 80-yard touchdown drive on its first possession of the half.
Coleman, a 2026 Miami Hurricanes commit, scored on a 1-yard run two plays after completing a 36-yard pass down the middle to 2025 Florida signee Vernell Brown III, who grabbed the ball between two defenders despite pass interference.
Brown finished with five catches for 89 yards while Coleman completed 13 of 22 passes for 143 yards and rushed 13 times for 110 yards and three touchdowns.
Heritage reclaimed a two-touchdown lead on running back Byron Louis’ 3-yard burst into the end zone on third-and-goal. Louis, who like Brown III signed with Florida earlier this month, celebrated with a Gator chomp.
The scoring seesaw tilted right back to Jones, which closed the gap again on Coleman’s 5-yard run into the end zone late in the third quarter. Jones then pulled even with 9:07 left in the game as Jaquail Smith rushed for an 8-yard touchdown.
The first play from scrimmage after the ensuing kickoff, Louis raced to the end zone for the winning points.
Byron Louis: ‘God gave me the vision’
“God gave me the vision and I just ran,” Louis said. “Honestly, it was a big play, but that’s what we expect. I never expected this team to lay down. I knew we had to play four quarters the whole time. I just had to keep my composure, keep doing what I was doing, keep pounding away, and the big moment was going to come.”
Smith said of Louis and Toney, “The dudes have got to be dudes, and the dudes were dudes when we needed them to be. Byron has carried us for the last two years, and I didn’t expect anything different from him tonight.”
The teams combined for 28 points in the third quarter and appeared headed toward that in the fourth before Tanis made the defensive play of the game.
“I felt [the ball] on my thigh, so I lifted my thigh up and it was there,” Tanis said. “I felt it was going to come down to the defense making a play. Offense played a great game. Defense, we had to step up. We did and it feels amazing.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Plantation American Heritage wins sixth state football championship
