Lakeland sends resounding message with upset at Miami Central

Without a doubt, among today’s high school teams, the Lakeland Dreadnaughts can be listed as one of the strongest teams in Florida given the fact that they are the state champions for the past two years. 
 
Apparently what Lakeland did on Friday night the Dreadnaughts just upped their visibility on the national level. 
 
On offense, the Tigers were mistake free, while on defense they capitalized on the Rockets’ miscue and ground out one of the best performance that sees them posting a 16-8 whipping of traditional national power Traz Powell Stadium Miami Central. 
 
The Rockets began the season in their current standing of No 20 in the preseason SBLive/Sports Illustrated Top 25 national rankings. 
 
They said “We knew what it was,” Lakeland coach Marvin Frazier on the spectacle that was played before the game was aborted. “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. ” 
 
If Lakeland was not known in the United States before, it will in is now, and it is all because of a silly concept of modelling. 
 
“Dade County is a special county,” Frazier said. “This is the Mecca, man,” he said, featuring the Florida preps as the crowning jewel of the American hockey program. “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 they’re respected, but they wanted to beat them 
 
This was in a game that was characteristically defended and Lakeland’s Calum Muldoon scored all three of his field goals within 30 yards. 
 
Perhaps, the most impressive performer of the game, was Malik Morris, the Line backer who was very impressive on the defense line and was also involved in the block punt at the third quarter. 
 
Morris came in at the goal-line in a running back position and plowed his way into the end zone for a 2-yard decisiveness run which made Lakeland lead 16-6 with 10:15 to play in the fourth quarter. 
 
‘We did pretty good,’ admitted Morris ‘but we’ve got to go back to the drawing board. ’ “It is a long season ahead, and we expect to play as far as possible up to December. ” 
 
Morris also played well in the final moments of the game as Lakeland made its stand on preventing the opposition team from crossing the goal line. In the final stages of the match Central was behind by 16 to 6 and had the ball on the 1-year line. However, Lakeland team denied two attempts by Bekkam Kritza for quarterback sneaks and the Rockets muffed the ball and lost it on downs 3:02 left. 
 
“Special thanks 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. ” 
 
The Central hardly created a sense of producing much of an offense. 
 
Toward the end of the second quarter, though, the Rockets were able to make a long shot. Kritza connected with Nae’shaun Montgomery, on a 56-yard touchdown pass. Regrettably the extra terrain was not made. 
 
Still, Central led, 6-3. But a couple of field goals by Muldoon gave Lakeland a 9-6 lead of the match at the half time. 
 
“The did some different things that they haven’t really done on film,” said Central coach Jube Joseph. “It kind of confused us early on. Once we settled down, we made some big plays. There are some plays left on this field that we expected to score but for one reason or the other, there was a mishap”. 
 
In the second half after taking the kickoff centrally, the team seemed to come back to life. Lightning in the area also paused the game right in the middle and it did not resume for about 40 minutes. 
 
The last points of Central were scored as a safety in the last minutes of the match which made the score 8:0. However, the final drive of the Rockets was terminated at the Lakeland 22-yard line at 1. 26 left. 
 
“I think we picked it up in the second half,” Joseph adding. “They have to finally get it, we play four quarters of football. ”