Milford rolls over Wellesley
WELLESLEY — On Milford’s first two offensive possessions Saturday afternoon at Wellesley, the Scarlet Hawks moved the ball but turned it over each time on a fumble and an interception.
Perhaps, one might feel that would be an omen for bad things to come. Then again, some first impressions can be misleading.
Milford recovered with a complete game and dominant effort on offense, defense, and special teams, as the Scarlet Hawks rolled to an impressive 44-7 win over Wellesley.
With the victory, Milford improves to 2-0, while Wellesley drops to 1-1.
“I think once we settled in, it was no different than last week (a 49-28 win over Foxboro),” Milford coach Dale Olson said. “We ran a couple plays offensively today. If they took away the outside perimeter pass game, it was handed (off ). If we got numbers in the box, we’re going to be able to run the football. When they jam the box, we’ve got to pitch it outside. Once we settled into that today, we had some explosive plays.”
That they did. In building up a 31-7 halftime lead, Milford had 321 yards rushing and receiving — 207 on 20 carries and 114 through the air, respectively. The Milford defense only allowed Wellesley to cross the 50yard line twice: once on a 65yard touchdown pass and again on the last drive of the game with the running clock and backups in. Finally, Milford kicker Nicholas Araujo booted field goals of 32, 38, and 45 yards, made all five extra points, and even had a 25-yard pick-six in the third quarter.
All in all, Milford looked dominant against a good Wellesley team.
Milford struck first when quarterback Evan Cornelius hit Nick Schuler along the right sideline, and Schuler slipped a couple tackles and ran for a 51-yard touchdown. Cornelius then found Jaden Agnew for a 31-yard score. After a Wellesley fumble, Isaiah Pantalone got free by the left side for a 20-yard touchdown catch from the junior signal-caller.
Cornelius completed 11-of19 passes for 136 yards.
“I have a lot of weapons, and I’m happy I spread the wealth this week a lot,” Cornelius said. “They run really good routes. They put in work in practice all week. They did their job, and I got them the ball.”
In the second quarter, Grant Scudo ran up the middle untouched for an 81-yard touchdown and Araujo kicked his 38-yarder.
Wellesley’s Vincent Ferrara hit Jack Poirier for a 65yard touchdown, but that was it as far as the Raiders were concerned on offense.
Milford running back Tyler Lane finished with 83 yards on 10 carries.
“It feels really good to score that many points, but we still have to be better next week,” Lane said.