With tens of thousands of high school football games being played each-and-every year, it’s hard to pick-out one game as the best. However, Friday night’s Florida showdown between No. 6 American Heritage (Plantation) and No. 83 Cardinal Gibbons will have to be somewhere near the top.
American Heritage (11-0), winners of three state championships in the last four years, fell behind 27-6 before battling back to take a 58-57 triple-overtime victory in the Class 5A state quarterfinals. The Patriots, who now own a 25-game win streak, scored 35 unanswered points to take a 41-27 led, but the Chiefs forced overtime by tying the game at 41-all.
After Cardinal Gibbons took at 57-51 lead in the third overtime, the Patriots blocked the Chiefs’ extra point try. Cam Smith’s touchdown pass to Anthony Schwartz tied the game at 57, and then Jimmy Lowery’s extra point gave the Patriots the win and a trip to the state semifinals against Immokalee next Friday.
Cardinal Gibbons finishes 11-2 with both losses coming at the hands of American Heritage by a combined total of just five points. The Chiefs are 20-4 over the last two seasons with all four losses coming against the Patriots.
