Milford knocks off Mansfield in OT
MANSFIELD — On the second-to-last play of the Friday night’s game against Mansfield, Milford receiver Damien Carter was supposed to have the ball thrown to him.
Instead, it was thrown in the other direction.
One play later, though, it did come his way, and Carter made the most of the opportunity.
On the strength of Carter’s touchdown catch from quarterback Evan Cornelius, Milford survived in a 27-24 overtime victory.
“I was nervous and hoping to catch the ball,” Carter said. “It was pretty exciting.”
It sure was.Even though Milford (5-0) is perfect, it sounds like coach Dale Olson feels his team may be underrated still.
“Listen, I hope people believe now that Milford’s for real,” Olson said. “Right? We knew coming into this year that we had some young kids, some talented kids, but I’ll tell you this: if we’re not a top-six, eight team in the state, I don’t know who is.”
His kids sure performed like a highly-ranked squad. Milford won the toss in overtime of a 21-21 game and elected to have Mansfield (3-2) go on offense first. However, the Hornets could only muster a 30-yard James Gilleran field goal.
That meant a touchdown wins it for Milford. The first play was a 1-yard Tyler Lane (18 carries, 91 yards and a TD) run. The next play was supposed to go to Carter but was an incompletion.
On the final play, Carter was supposed to run a slant, but he was effectively jammed on the inside, so the receiver ran a fade instead. Cornelius (153 yards, two TDs passing) put it on Carter, who got his left foot in bounds for the score.
It set off a wild celebration for Milford.
It was a wild game otherwise. Cornelius and Lane had 1-yard touchdown runs as Milford built a 14-0 lead.
But for a long stretch, Milford did nothing offensively and Mansfield capitalized. Drew Sacco, Conner Zukowski, and James Fichera all had short touchdown runs, as the Hornets mostly moved the ball through the air. Zukowski finished with 157 yards passing, mostly to sophomores Trevor Foley and CJ Bell.
To Milford’s credit, the Scarlet Hawks did not panic, and tied it on a 39-yard slant to Carter in the fourth quarter.
That’s how it stayed until overtime, where Carter’s heroics saved the day.
“In the past, I think this program, they have (panicked),” Olson said. “They didn’t know how to win big games like that. … But our defense stepped up.”