Lakeland sends resounding message with upset at Miami Central

MIAMI GARDENS– As back-to-back state champions, the Lakeland Dreadnaughts certainly rank among the top programs in Florida.

After what Lakeland accomplished on Friday night, the Dreadnaughts just raised their profile on the national stage.

Playing mistake-free on offense, while being opportunistic on defense, Lakeland grinded out an impressive 16-8 victory over traditional national power Miami Central at Traz Powell Stadium.

The Rockets entered ranked 20th in the SBLive/Sports Illustrated Top 25 national rankings.

“We knew what it was,” Lakeland coach Marvin Frazier said. “We knew that was the big, bad wolf. We just had to show that we were one too. I’m really proud of these guys for showing it, and putting it on display. We knew what we had the opportunity to do. Saturday morning, everybody will be talking about Lakeland.”

If Lakeland wasn’t recognized on a national scale before, it promises to be now.

“Dade County is a special county,” Frazier said. “This is the Mecca. To all those schools down here. The Northwesterns, the Norlands. All those guys. St. Thomas is up there in Broward. I mean, Chaminade! All those guys. Listen, it’s the Mecca. In Lakeland, we respect them, but we wanted to beat them. We wanted to conquer them. That’s just what it is. We want to conquer them, because they are so respected. To be the best in the country, you’ve got to get it down here, and beat these guys. Much respect to everybody down here, and we’re going to continue to grind and go wherever the Lord takes us.”

In a game defensively dominated game, Lakeland kicker Calum Muldoon booted three close range (less than 30 yards) field goals.

Arguably, the player of the game, was linebacker Malik Morris, who stood out on defense, while also recording a momentum-turning blocked punt in the third quarter.

At the goal-line, Morris entered at running back, and powered his way in for a 2-yard decisive touchdown run, which put Lakeland ahead, 16-6, with 10:15 remaining in the fourth quarter.

“We did pretty good, but we’ve got to go back to the drawing board,” Morris said. “It’s a long season ahead. We hope to be playing into December.”

Morris also came up big in the closing minutes as part of Lakeland’s goal-line stand. Central, trailing 16-6, had the ball on the 1-year line. But Lakeland stuffed successive quarterback sneaks by Bekkam Kritza, and the Rockets turned the ball over on downs with 3:02 left.

“Shout out to Miami,” Morris said. “A bunch of NFL legions [are from Miami-Dade County]. You don’t see many people coming from Lakeland like that. I feel like, for us to be from there, hey, we did a tremendous job. We represented our city well.”

Central struggled to manufacture much offensive.

In the second quarter, however, the Rockets did connect on a big play. Kritza hooked up with Nae’shaun Montgomery on a 56-yard touchdown pass. But the extra point was missed.

Still, Central led, 6-3. But a couple of field goals by Muldoon gave Lakeland a 9-6 lead at halftime.

“They did some different things that they haven’t really done on film,” Central coach Jube Joseph said. “It kind of confused us early on. Once we settled down, we made some big plays. There’s a lot of plays left out on that field that we felt like we should have connected on. But some things happened, execution wise.”

In the second half, Central showed some life after taking the kickoff. But the game was delayed about 40 minutes due to lightning in the area.

In the closing minutes, Central’s final points came on a safety, making it an eight-point game. But the Rockets final drive was halted at the Lakeland 22-yard line with 1:26 left.

“I think we picked it up in the second half,” Joseph said. “They’ve got to understand, we play four quarters of football.”

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