American Heritage's Byron Louis scores five TDs in playoff victory
PLANTATION, FLORIDA – If Byron Louis wasn’t widely known on the national scene before, the four-star junior emphatically entered the spotlight on Friday night.
With a berth into the state semifinals on the line, Louis rushed for five touchdowns and 224 yards on 29 carries in American Heritage’s 47-35 thriller against Cardinal Gibbons in the Class 2M-Region 3 finals.
The victory means Heritage (10-1) now is the No. 2 seed in Class 2M, and will play host to Berkeley Prep (Tampa) next Friday in the semifinals.
“We’re looking for a leader,” Heritage coach Mike Smith said. “We’re looking for somebody to step up. [Byron Louis] did that tonight.”
Part of the Class of 2025, Louis is on many major college’s recruiting radar. Earlier this month, the 6-foot, 210-pounder made an official visit to Ohio State. When it’s time to make a decision, Louis will have plenty of schools to choose from. Miami, Texas, Florida State, Oregon, Ole Miss and others are under consideration.
Even though he is 4-Star recruit, American Heritage junior running back has been under the radar this season. That all changed on Friday when he rushed for 224-yards and five touchdowns to lead the Patriots to a 47-35 win over Cardinal Gibbons in the Florida 2M state playoffs.
Photo by Joe Frisaro
“It’s crazy,” Heritage coach Mike Smith said. “He hasn’t had a lot of touches the last couple of weeks because we’ve been in blowouts. But, you know, he grew up tonight. He was a man/child tonight. You know, what can I say about him? He’s a stud.”
On a night Cardinal Gibbons (9-4) gave Heritage all it could handle, Louis shouldered a heavy workload, logging 29 carries. Even after the game, Louis took on a leadership role by addressing his teammates after Smith spoke to the club.
“I feel, as if, a great team also needs a great leader,” Louis said. “Our coaches have been saying, since the Class of ’23 has left, somebody has had to step up and be a leader. I usually don’t ask for the role, but it gets put in my hands. That’s all God’s doing.”
It was clear on Heritage’s first two plays of the night that Louis’ No. 7 was going to be called upon. Taking over at midfield, Louis broke loose for 46-yards on his first carry, and on the next play, he scored on a 4-yard run.
In addition to the team's coaches, Byron Louis (7) addressed his teammates following Friday's playoff win over Cardinal Gibbons. The junior 4-Star back is showing he is ready to be a team leader both on and off the field.
Photo by Joe Frisaro
Two carries, 50 yards, right off the bat.
“Right before the game, I told [the line], this game is going to solely depend on us, on how we run the ball,” Louis said. “Those guys didn’t let me down. I had to execute every time I touched it.”
In the first half, Louis rushed for two touchdowns, and he went into halftime with 92 yards on the ground on 12 carries.
A year ago, Louis was playing in the shadows of Mark Fletcher, now at the University of Miami. Now, Louis has taken on the role of handling the tough yards, while also showing explosiveness in the open field.
The Patriots last season were led by a star-studded cast of seniors, including Fletcher and wide receiver Brandon Inniss, who is now at Ohio State.
That team advanced to the Class 2M state championship, before losing to Miami Central.
In their playoff run, Heritage is one win shy of reaching the state finals for the second straight year.
“Just the way I’ve been brought up, the way I’ve been raised, I’m a natural-born leader,” Louis said. “I just had to step into that role, and let my guys know that I’ve got them, no matter what.”
The Patriots certainly needed Louis to step up in the rematch with a vastly improved Gibbons team.
When these two district rivals met in September, Heritage won 49-7.
“I told the guys all week long – you don’t start the game at 48-7,” Smith said. “It starts 0-0. They’re coming. That was going to be their Super Bowl. They were feeling good about themselves. They got on a little bit of a roll at the end of the season. We knew what was coming. Look, that was a heckuva football game.”
Heritage led 21-14 at halftime. Along with Louis’ two touchdowns, Deandre Desinor had a 26-yard TD scamper that was set up on quarterback Dia Bell’s 37-yard pass play to Brandon Bennett.
But Gibbons capitalized on a muffed punt, scoring on Jonathan Rousseau's return on the fumble to make it 14-7 in the second quarter. Cedric Wyche had a 29-yard touchdown run to make it 21-14 at halftime.
In the second half, Heritage took the opening drive, and scored on Louis’ 7-yard run, making it 28-14. But Wyche’s 98-yard kickoff return closed the gap to 28-21.
A 25-yard run by Louis made it 35-21, but again, Gibbons responded. Patrick Anderson had a 2-yard TD run, trimming the lead to 35-28.
Malachi Toney gave Heritage a 41-28 advantage by scoring on a 64-yard shovel pass from Dia Bell.
The Chiefs came back again on Michael Merdinger’s 31-yard TD pass to Antonio Lindsay Jr.
The fifth Louis touchdown came with 6:37 remaining on another 7-yard run.
With Gibbons at Heritage’s 9 yard line in the final four minutes, Patriots’ defensive back Semaj Jackson sacked Merdinger, who fumbled. Christian Moreau recovered the fumble to ice the game.
“We knew we weren’t going to get the same Gibbons that we got the first time,” Smith said. “It’s never been like that. That was a typical Gibbons game right there. We dropped a punt down there. They score, we score. Back-and-forth. Every time we play, that’s normally what a Gibbons’ game is.”
