CORAL GABLES — American Heritage is about 17-mile drive down the Florida Turnpike from Hard Rock Stadium, and a trio of former Patriots put on a show for the hometown crowd in a win over Stanford on Saturday.
Running back Mark Fletcher paced the Miami Hurricanes offense with three touchdowns. Wide receiver Malachi Toney continued his strong freshman campaign. And Xavier Lucas, a transfer who originally left South Florida for Wisconsin, had his first interception as a Miami player.
“It’s a beautiful thing,” Fletcher said. “You love seeing that, especially, homegrown (players). We’re all excited to just be doing it together.”
Miami has brought in six players from American Heritage in its high school recruiting classes or via the transfer portal since coach Mario Cristobal arrived at UM: Fletcher, Lucas, Toney, cornerback Damari Brown, cornerback Davonte Brown and cornerback Daryl Porter Jr. Most of them have played key roles at UM.
“It’s great,” Lucas said. “We all dream of playing at home, so watching our guys flourish is just a great feeling.
American Heritage has been one of the best teams in Florida over the past 10 years, winning four state championships since 2016. Fletcher and Toney won state titles in high school.
“Like so many schools down here, they do such a great job developing not only players, but character,” Cristobal said in a radio interview with WQAM’s The Joe Rose Show on Monday “And great to see those guys just go out there and play at a high level and have success and certainly help this team win.
UM gets another afternoon game
Miami will have only its second home afternoon game of the season next week.
UM’s home game against Syracuse on Nov. 8 will be at 3:30 p.m., the ACC announced on Monday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
The Hurricanes have had only one afternoon game at home this season: a 4:30 kickoff against USF on Sept. 13. — and that game ended late because it was delayed for more than 100 minutes due to lightning.
Mesidor will likely play vs. SMU
The Hurricanes kept standout defensive end Akheem Mesidor out of their game against Stanford due to a foot injury, but Cristobal said he was close to returning.
“He was close Saturday,” Cristobal said. “We thought it was there and it wasn’t. So some of these things, you’ve just got to wait on medical. You just take their advice. You take their knowledge and … just apply it and see what happens.”
Cristobal said he expects Mesidor to return to the lineup against SMU on Saturday.
“We probably err on the side of optimism more times than not, but we follow directions from the medical staff and felt good about it then,” Cristobal said. “Feel good about it now and then.”
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/10/27/hurricanes-notes-heritage/
