Football: Lakeland's defense stands tall in 16-8 win against nationally ranked Miami Central

MIAMI — Donta Jenkins knew what was coming.

Seconds before Miami Central snapped the ball on fourth-and-1, the Lakeland senior edge rusher recognized pass and split out just a little wider. Jenkins ended up knocking down Bekkem Kritza’s pass and sealing the Dreadnaughts’ 16-8 win against nationally ranked Central at Traz Powell Stadium on Friday night.

“I read my tackle,” said Jenkins, who has offers from UCF, USF, Louisville and several others. “The whole game he was giving it up with the pass, so I was ready. I knew they wanted that first down, so I just got ready. I saw the quarterback get ready to throw and I got my hands up.

“It felt great. I knew after I did that, we won the game. Great feeling.”

Lakeland’s defense, led by junior linebacker Malik Morris and Jenkins, stopped three Central fourth-down attempts in the second half.

Morris was outstanding, making a fourth-down stop to end a promising Central drive in the third quarter. On the Rockets next drive, Morris blocked a punt to give Lakeland prime field position. He ended up capping the drive with a two-yard touchdown run. It was the long touchdown of the game for Lakeland, which also had three field goals in the first half.

“Malik is special,” Lakeland coach Marvin Frazier said. “Malik is the best player in the country. I don’t know what these people are waiting on. He’s the best player in the country. We held him back. … We’re excited about where we can go, but Malik is one of the guys who is going to take us there.”

Here are takeaways from Lakeland’s win

The Dreadnaughts defense is stout

Not many teams go into Traz Powell and beat Central (0-1, No. 20 USA Today Super 25). It’s been more than a decade since the Rockets fell to a public school that wasn’t a Miami-Dade County program. For Lakeland (1-0, No. 2 Class 5A USA Today Florida Network top 10) to allow just one touchdown — a 56-yard touchdown pass from Kritza (Penn State commit) to four-star senior wide receiver Naeshaun Montgomery — was impressive. With a handful of exceptions, Lakeland stuffed Central’s run game and the back-to-back goal line stands in the fourth quarter were big.

Can’t say enough good things about Malik Morris

Lakeland’s four-star linebacker is one of the premier linebackers in the 2026 class and it’s easy to see why. Morris set the tone from the coin toss when he was talking to the Central players and backed it up with multiple physical tackles. The 6-foot-1, 225-pounder made play after play in the second half as Lakeland (1-0) finished off the Rockets.

Lakeland’s offense is a work in progress

The Dreadnaughts didn’t have a big night offensively, in large part because of how Central’s talented front seven — led by Penn State defensive line commit Randy Adirika and Miami linebacker commit Ezekiel Marcelin — were able to stop the run and pressure quarterback Zander Smith. It also didn’t help that Lakeland was without several of its offensive playmakers. Lakeland won’t see another defense like this until the playoffs (if at all) and the offense will continue to improve as it gets healthy.

Naeshaun Montgomery is special

The Rockets receiver is scheduled to announce his college commitment on Sunday and gave college fans one last tantalizing performance to think about. Ranked No. 35 on the USA Today Florid Network top 100, Montgomery had over 100 yards and a touchdown against Lakeland — a feat made even more impressive considering Ole Miss commit Keon Young was shadowing him for most of the night. Montgomery made multiple highlight plays in the fourth quarter to keep the game interesting, including a potential touchdown in the final three minutes but the official said he stepped out of bounds. Montgomery is expected to decide between Florida and Penn State.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Football: Lakeland's defense stands tall in 16-8 win against nationally ranked Miami Central