American Heritage falls to Trinity Christian, 3-0 — yes, 3-0 — after late muffed punt

The Plantation American Heritage defenders deserved better than what they got on Friday night.

Hosting traditional powerhouse Jacksonville Trinity Christian Academy, the Patriots defense was phenomenal all night long, completely shutting down the Conquerors offense, but, in a game that appeared to be headed to overtime after neither team could score all night, one special teams mistake wound up costing Heritage dearly.

With just 12 seconds left, James Williams, a five-star safety lined up to return a punt, mishandled a one-bouncer at his own 17-yard line. Trinity Christian recovered, which set up a 22-yard field for Conquerors kicker Caleb Stevenson as time expired. Trinity Christian Academy pulled out a 3-0 victory at Heritage Field.

The loss dropped the Patriots, who were ranked No. 1 in Class 5A and No. 20 in the nation by MaxPreps, to 3-1, while Trinity Christian, which won four consecutive state titles from 2013-16, climbed to 4-1.

“I told the kids after the game, ‘You can’t win a football game when you’re just too undisciplined, no matter how good your defense plays,’” Heritage coach Patrick Surtain said. “Penalties, a big turnover down deep, missed assignments — it’s how you lose games and that’s what happened to us tonight. You can’t do that against anybody let along a really good team like Trinity Christian and they made us pay.”

Surtain could only watch in frustration as his defense — led by Williams, fellow safety Boogsie Silvera and defensive end Marvin Jones completely stymied the Trinity Christian offense all night, but had an offense that simply couldn’t take advantage. Even when the Patriots weren’t struggling to move the ball, they managed to waste a pair of scoring opportunities which could’ve given them the lead. So dominant was the Heritage defense that Trinity Christian, after recording two first downs on its opening drive of the game, never recorded another until there was 1:30 left in the game. The Conquerors finished with just 57 total yards.

“It doesn’t matter if the defense stops them on every drive. If our offense can’t score, then it’s up to us to find a way to score,” said Silvera, who gave an empassioned speech to his team after the game. “We’re all a family here and just have to get our minds right because we know we know what we’re playing for around here, and have every intention of playing into mid-December for a state title.”

The tone of frustration on offense was set early on for Heritage, that when the Patriots, on their first possession of the game, started at their own 9 and proceeded to go on a marathon 21-play drive that ate up the remainder of the first quarter and first three minutes of the second.

They appeared to take a lead when quarterback Vinson Davis III, a converted wide receiver, bolted around the left side 13 yards for a score on the final play of the first quarter, but penalties — 18 of them for 125 yards — haunted Heritage all night and did so on this play, as a holding call nullified the score. Even after they overcame the holding to get a first down inside the 10, Davis, on a third-and-goal from the 5, tried to hit star wide receiver Oronde Gadsden II on a quick slant, but Trinity Christian defensive back Christian Ellis jumped the route and picked it off.

The second half literally became a battle of punts between Stevenson and Heritage’s Chris Maron, but the Patriots had the better field position and eventually, thanks to a short punt by Stevenson, got good field position and a couple of first downs to give Maron a shot at a 41-yard field goal. Star Trinity Christian defensive back Terrell Jackson shot around the right side, though, and partially blocked the kick with 7:48 left in the game.

Despite the tough loss, Surtain said his team will find a way to get better and learn.

“We still recognize that everything we want, everything we still want to play for is in front of us,” Surtain said. “We know we’ve got to get better and all you can do is get back to work. No heads down around here. We know what we need to do to get better, and we’ll get back to the drawing board on Monday and do exactly that.”