We Speak High School Football
Carol City’s Malik Leonard Is a Sophomore Playing Like a Senior
Sophomore quarterbacks are supposed to manage games. Carol City’s Malik Leonard is out here taking them over.
Leonard turned in one of the finest performances anywhere in Florida in Week 9, completing 21 of 26 passes for 291 yards and four touchdowns — and adding 26 rushing yards for good measure — as Carol City routed Miami Palmetto 41-21 on Thursday night at Tropical Park Stadium. The performance landed Leonard on High School On SI’s Florida Player of the Week ballot, in a field of seniors from across the state.
His favorite target was senior wide receiver Nicholas Lennear, a University of Miami commit who caught two of Leonard’s touchdown passes against Palmetto and celebrated in the end zone the way the Chiefs have been celebrating all month — together, loudly, and like a team with something to prove.
Because Carol City does have something to prove. The Chiefs are 5-3 with 268 points scored and only 64 allowed, and their defense has posted shutouts of Norland (43-0), Edison (58-0) and Booker T. Washington (42-0). On October 9, they beat Miami Northwestern 17-7 in one of the city’s fiercest rivalries. Even their losses came with fight — a 23-20 defeat at Lee County and a 10-9 heartbreaker at Georgia power Grayson.
What makes the Palmetto win remarkable is the context: Carol City played it shorthanded, still missing players from an FHSAA suspension ruling earlier this month, and won by 20 anyway. Depth, coaching and a sophomore quarterback playing beyond his years carried the night.
The Chiefs visit Mater Academy Charter on October 23 and close the regular season against Miami Central on October 30 — one more showcase for Leonard before the whole state learns his name. Miami-Dade already knows it. Malik Leonard is not the future of Carol City football. He is the present.
We Speak High School Football
Miller Grove Wolverines Hunting a Strong Finish After a Season of Fights
The Miller Grove Wolverines opened their season with a statement, and they have been fighting ever since. A 31-0 shutout of Chamblee in the opener showed what this Lithonia team can be, and the Wolverines have spent the fall proving that night was no fluke.
Miller Grove owns a 35-6 road win at McNair and a 20-8 win at Carver in Atlanta, victories built on defense and toughness. Look at those three wins together and a pattern emerges: Chamblee scored zero, McNair scored six and Carver scored eight. When the Wolverines win, they win with a defense that gives up almost nothing, and that identity travels anywhere. At 3-4, with 131 points scored and 135 allowed, nearly every Wolverines game this season has been a genuine fight, decided by which team made the plays late.
That includes the tough nights. The Wolverines fell 42-10 to a strong Columbia team on October 16 and dropped a 28-21 heartbreaker at M.L. King in an all-DeKalb battle earlier this season. Those are the kinds of games a program learns from.
That defensive identity is worth repeating, because it is rare: across their three wins, the Wolverines have allowed a total of 14 points. Fourteen. In an era of spread offenses and video-game scores, Miller Grove wins the old-fashioned way, with tackling, discipline and a defense that takes points personally. That travels in November, and it gives the Wolverines a real chance in every game left on the schedule.
The closing stretch gives Miller Grove every chance to finish the right way. South Atlanta visits on Friday, October 23, then the Wolverines travel to Cedar Grove on October 30 before closing at home against Redan.
Three games, three chances to turn a season of fights into a winning finish. In Lithonia, the Wolverines and their families have every reason to believe that is exactly what happens next.
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