Hornets Stun Eagles With Last-Second Touchdown Win

By Mike Blum, Patch contributor

MILTON, GA — History has a funny way of repeating itself, but Milton High School football fans did not find anything amusing about the Eagles’ historically inevitable loss Friday night to rival Roswell on their home turf.

Roswell scored the winning touchdown with five seconds on the clock, as the Hornets overcame a 20-10 deficit with two scores in the final five minutes to win 22-20. The ending was eerily reminiscent of two Roswell victories over Milton in 1993 and a more recent occurrence in 2014.

In all three of those games, the Hornets completed a winning touchdown pass in the closing seconds, with the second of two comeback wins in ’93 coming in the region playoffs and denying the Eagles what would have been their first ever post-season victory. The Milton team of 1993 was one of the best in the modern history of the school, with the 2014 Eagles the most successful squads ever, winning 11 games and losing in the quarterfinals to the eventual state champion.

The loss to Roswell that year was Milton’s only regular season setback, and the Eagles will need to defeat perennial Gwinnett playoff contender Parkview next week and run the table in Region 5-AAAAAAA to repeat that feat. The Eagles came into Friday’s game the consensus fourth ranked team in Georgia in the state’s highest classification, and were ranked nationally in several polls after three impressive wins to start the 2018 season.

Roswell also came into the game 3-0, but the Hornets’ only contested game of the three came against West Forsyth, a team from Milton’s region that was winless prior to Friday night. The Hornets survived their shaky kicking game and made a huge special teams’ play, scoring the game’s first touchdown on a 66-yard blocked field goal return by linebacker Matt Huelsman. The Hornets missed two extra points, gave Milton good field position several times on short or out of bounds kickoffs and handed the Eagles their first score on a blocked punt from inside the Roswell 10.

Milton scored 20 unanswered points to take a 20-10 lead with 9:20 to play, driving 99 yards after a goal line stand to score on the first play of the fourth quarter, and seemingly breaking the game with a fumble return from near midfield 2 and a half minutes later. At that point, Roswell’s only scoring had come off the blocked field goal return and the Hornets’ first successful field goal of the season following a fumble recovery on the game’s first play.

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Leading 10-6 at the half, the Hornets drove 99 yards on 21 plays to start the third quarter, converting three third downs and two fourth downs before being stopped on fourth-and-goal from the Milton 1. When the Eagles responded with a 99-yard drive in 10 plays followed by a defensive score, the outcome appeared to be decided. But the Hornets had history, some clutch performances on both sides of the ball and a few well-chosen play calls on their side.

The Hornets rebounded from the returned fumble for a Milton score with an 11-play, 78-yard drive, with
quarterback Ethan Roberts 5-of-5 passing for 66 yards, the last an 18-yarder to wide open backup running back Jeremy Slaughter for the touchdown. The score came one play after an interference penalty in the end zone against the Eagles, one of several disputed calls by the officials in the fourth quarter.

Trailing 2016, Roswell appeared to have forced a three-and-out by the Eagles, but a personal foul call against the Hornets on third down prolonged the Milton possession. An ineligible receiver downfield against the Eagles nullified a third down conversion and the Hornets got the ball back at the Milton 34 following a 13-yard punt.

The Eagles jumped offside on third-and-3 to give the Hornets a first down, but the Milton defense put Roswell in a third-and-13 with the help of a penalty against the Hornets before two more completions
by Roberts gave the Hornets a critical first down. Roberts did not receive credit for the completion that converted a fourth-and-4, as an interference penalty against the Eagles advanced the Hornets to the Milton 8.

On second down, Roberts hit staring running back Kamonty Jett on a swing pass, and Jett avoided one Milton
defender to score the winning touchdown with five second on the clock. The Hornets only threw two passes all night to their running backs, and both produced touchdowns on plays the Milton defense was not expecting.

“Those are not the kind of plays you can use five or six times in a game,” Roswell coach Matt Kemper said. “We picked the right time to use them.”

Although Kemper only took over as Roswell’s coach prior to the 2017 season, he was aware of the Hornets’ history of pulling out last-second victories over strong Milton teams, and credited the clutch play of his team with adding another memorable chapter in the long rivalry between the neighboring schools.

Kemper said he expects the last-second victory over a ranked Milton team will “give our program a kick."

"That was a great win for us," he added "I hope we use it to propel this team forward and not be a one and done.”

Roberts, a junior and first-year starter at quarterback after the Hornets started senior transfers the previous three years, was 15 of 25 passing for 155 yards and two touchdowns after having several first half passes batted down at the line of scrimmage. He also added 67 yards on 10 carries.

John Copenhaver caught six passes for 68 yards and Tripp Cooper had all four of his receptions in the
second half for 56 yards. Jett rushed for 71 tough yards on 18 carries in addition to scoring the winning
touchdown on his only catch of the night.

The Roswell defense played an excellent game against what had been a very productive Milton offense. Other than the 99-yard drive, the Hornets kept the Eagles in check, limiting them to 227 yards. The Hornets were particularly effective against dual threat Milton quarterback Jordan Yates, who had just four yards rushing and passed for a modest 93 yards on 11 completions, most of them short throws to the outside.

Running backs Josh Edwards and Jordan Davis combined for 141 yards on 20 carries, with Edwards (17 -
93) getting the bulk of the work and scoring both offensive touchdowns on runs of 12 and 2 yards. Milton ran only 15 plays the entire second half to Roswell’s 44, with the Eagle’s 16th play from scrimmage wiped out when a when multi-lateral attempt was waved off by a cross-field toss that could have led to a winning touchdown had it not been thrown forward.

Both teams will close out their non-region schedules next week with the Hornets playing at Wheeler. Both should be in the hunt for a region title, with Roswell having a larger roadblock in Walton than
Milton will face in its region, which may have a bit more depth than Roswell’s.

Mike Blum can be reached at michaelmblum@hotmail.com.

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