Teammates — and even opponents — pick up freshman after his late fumble
The moment was a poignant one. And the ultimate sign of sportsmanship.
Malachi Toney, the star freshman receiver for Plantation American Heritage was on the ground crying uncontrollably as coaches tried to pick him up. When they did, he was hugged and consoled by many of his teammates.
But Heritage players weren’t the only ones coming up to him trying to help pick him up. Even Miami Central players, and coaches for that matter, approached Toney to try and say whatever they could think of to help him through an extremely difficult moment.
It was just minutes earlier that his team was on the verge of completing an amazing comeback.
The Patriots appeared to be hopelessly behind having trailed Miami Central, 38-21, early in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s Class 2M state championship game at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale.
But the full-court press was on. A field goal and touchdown had cut the deficit to seven, and after the defense got a threeand-out on the Rockets, the offense was pushing up the field with one final drive to try and tie the game.
The Patriots were 40 yards away with less than two minutes left when Toney took a short pass over the middle from quarterback Blake Murphy and was pushing his way up the field. Then disaster struck.
Toney lost control of the ball and Rueben Bain, Central’s All-American defensive end, fell on it. There was 1:17 remaining and with only one timeout left, there was nothing the Patriots could do but watch the Rockets run out the clock to secure a 38-31 victory for a fourth consecutive state title and ninth overall.
It didn’t matter that he had made key contributions during the game, catching four passes for 50 yards, or just 24 hours earlier had been courted by Nick Saban and Alabama.
No, Toney wanted none of it. Sobbing and having to be held up by his assistant coaches, he marched off to the northwest corner of the stadium and disappeared off in the distance. Eventually, they went and got him and brought him back out to be with his teammates, but he was still inconsolable.
“It’s a tough spot, but it’s just not on him — no way,” American Heritage coach Mike Smith said. “I know that’s a tough spot there at the end, but it’s not on him. There were a lot of plays all night long that could’ve affected the outcome of this game. We had plenty of opportunities, and to put it on a 15-year-old kid — I’m not going to do that right now. That’s not fair. I know what he’s going through, and his family will go in there and pick him up. It’s part of life, man. That’s part of life, and he’ll be better for that down the road.”
Five-star wide receiver Brandon Inniss struggled after the game, too.
“We worked for so long and didn’t get the outcome we wanted, but I love all my teammates, especially Mali,” he said. “My heart just breaks for him right now.”
Asked what he said to Toney when he hugged him after the game, Inniss started with, “Bro, you’ve gotta keep going...” and then just walked away from reporters.
“He’s young man who has a lot of great things in front of him, a special guy,” Murphy said. “He doesn’t understand that when stuff like that happens, it’s not all on him; he played a great game and we’re just not going to put that on him.”
But the ultimate sign of feeling for a young man in one of his darkest moments was when the Central players found him and consoled him. One of those players was Rockets quarterback Keyone Jenkins, who actually knew Toney from their days of playing 7-on-7 football together.
“That’s my guy, he’s like my little brother and we’re real close,” Jenkins said. “I told him to keep his head up. It’s only his first year and he’s got a long way to go. He did a lot of damage. Watch what he does these next three years. He’s a special player.
“I can’t say I know how it feels because something like that has never happened to me, but I know he really hurts right now and that says a lot about our team that a bunch of us reached out to him when it was over.”
While the crowd roared around him and his teammates hopped around in jubilation, Rueben Bain pinned the football to his chest and curled his limbs all around it like he’d never let it go. Even when some teammates started to try to lift him up into the celebration, he plopped his way back to the ground. He wasn’t giving it away for anyone.
It was one part heads-up play and one part twist of fate, and — of course — the ball found its way into hands of the star defensive lineman when Miami Central needed it most. With a 21-point lead on the verge of vanishing, a fumble — forced by Ezekiel Marcelin and recovered by the soon-to-be Miami Hurricane — with 1:17 left saved Central’s 38-31 win against Plantation American Heritage, a fourth straight state championship and perhaps a national championship.
“I had to,” Bain said after finally letting the ball go and waiting to receive his fourth gold medal, “to make sure that we got it.”
It was a picture-perfect ending for one of the best Rockets ever. Last year, Bain set the school record with 29 1⁄2 sacks. This year, he came up one short when his lone sack in the Class 2M championship Friday gave him 29, but it was something he’d trade for coming up with the biggest moment of the title game.
It also turned into a pass-the-torch moment for the Central dynasty. Bain, now with four straight state championships and already a three-time firstteam all-county selection by the Miami Herald, is the Rockets’ present. Marcelin, already with more than half a dozen scholarship offers and two state titles as a starting linebacker, is their future.
They combined to make history in Fort Lauderdale.
“All the coaches — they said we need one more stop,” said Marcelin, a sophomore. “We’re going to be national champs the rest of our lives, we’re going to be legendary, we’re going to be immortal.”
Central (14-0) entered the game as the No. 3 team in the nation, according to MaxPreps. American Heritage (13-2) was No. 10. The Rockets believe a win should be enough to vault them past a pair of one-loss teams from California and to a national title.
They made it more stressful than they would’ve liked, though. A 21-point lead in the second quarter was down to 17 at halftime, then 10 straight points — and two straight stops — in the fourth gave the Patriots the ball at their own 37-yard line, down 38-31 with 3:01 left. They quickly got to Central’s 40 with three straight throws to star wide receiver Brandon Inniss and were back within range of a stunning comeback.
All year, the Rockets’ defense made the timely plays, though. When Central pulled off its seasonopening upset of then-No. 4 Bradenton IMG Academy back in August in Bradenton, Rockets defensive back Amari Wallace grabbed an interception in the final minute to seal the win. When Central fended off a furious rally from now-No. 23 Columbus in October in Miami, star linebacker Stanquan Clark forced a fumble in the last two minutes to seal the win.
Once again, the Rockets’ defense did it. Star quarterback Blake Murphy threw a short pass to Toney and the freshman cut up-field, with the ball held out too far away from his body. Marcelin flew in and tried to swipe at it — in the chaos of the moment, he admitted he wasn’t even sure if he actually knocked it out — and the ball wound up on the grass. It bounced around for a moment and Bain pounced.
Central could run out the clock.
“He was kind of like in and out, rough moments and he fought through,” Rockets coach Jube Joseph said of Marcelin, who logged 14 tackles, but wasn’t entirely pleased with his performance. “That’s just like the fabric of our team. That shows the infrastructure of how he is as a person.”
As for Bain, the firstyear coach’s praise was even higher after the senior finished his career with five tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack and one pass defended.
“Generational talent,” said Joseph, who spent the previous three seasons as Central’s defensive coordinator.
While the Rockets celebrated inside DRV PNK Stadium and crowed about why they deserve to be national champions, a link to the past stood along the periphery.
Wesley Bissainthe, now a linebacker for the Hurricanes and the key defensive anchor for Central’s previous three state titles, stood next to Marcelin while the star of the future talked about his gamesaving play.
It’s easy to see how Central keeps doing it.
“Wesley kind of rubbed off on him last year,” star quarterback Keyone Jenkins said.
The Rockets, as always, are in good hands.
“For a guy like that,” Bain said, “that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”