All eyes were on American Heritage-Delray’s Dylan Rizk on Friday night.
The freshman quarterback was forced into a starting role because of a shoulder injury to senior Zachary Bohannon. However, Rizk’s night would last all of three plays of a 20-15 non-district loss to Hialeah Champagnat.
Rizk was taken down hard during the first series of the game and sustained an injury to the left shoulder area. The No. 3-ranked Lions (6-2), who have played in the Class 2A state championship game each of the past two seasons, would immediately take advantage and never trailed again.
“Champagnat is a great program,” said Heritage-Delray coach Keith Hindsley, whose Stallions fell to 5-3. “They’ve had state championships in the past 2-3 years. This was a big test for us.”
Champagnat senior quarterback Ryle Aguila threw the first of three first-half TD passes on a 10-yarder to Ebelson Raphael to open the scoring. Aguila added TD strikes of 33 yards to Cur’mari Dopson and had another 7-yarder to make it 20-9 after Champagnat blocked a Heritage punt with just 19 seconds left before halftime.
For the game, Aguila finished 11-of-19 passing for 167 yards and the three TDs. He was also Champagnat’s leading rusher with 33 yards.
Stallions sophomore Tavares Parker — the third-string QB who took over for Rizk — played well in a tough spot. Parker finished 8 of 15 through the air for 128 yards.
Parker connected with Andison Coby on a pair of TDs (37, 11). Coby had 88 yards receiving. Everest Ferrell nailed a 26-yard field goal for Heritage-Delray.
The Stallions could not get the run game going. Back Tyler Willis was held to 32 yards on 19 carries.
Champagnat won state in 2013 and 2017, and lost to North Florida Christian in last year’s 2A state championship game.
Despite the loss, Hindsley believes the Stallions’ schedule will prepare them for down the road.
“It carries us right into another game against Cardinal Newman, whose 6-1 [going into this week],” Hindsley said. “And then Gulliver, who is undefeated. So, hey, we put together a schedule to test us before we get a chance to play in the playoffs.”
Pat Lammer is a correspondent for the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
