On the day before his team played in arguably the most anticipated matchup of this year’s GHSA state football playoffs, Milton High School quarterback Luke Nickel acknowledged the heavy expectations of going after a second consecutive state title with a loaded roster.
“You definitely hear some of that pressure,” said Nickel, a future Miami Hurricane and one of nine Eagles seniors who signed a letter of intent with ACC or SEC schools on Wednesday. “You’ve got people telling us ‘Win or bust.’ But we feel that and we feel like we should win state. We have the team to do it.”
Friday night, in his final home game before graduation and the start of his college journey, Nickel and his talent-rich teammates only reinforced the belief of the team and just about anybody who has put eyes on this team, which a year ago won the Class 7A state title. Well-coached and ridiculously talented, No. 1 Milton thrashed No. 2 Lee County 56-28 to advance to the Class 5A state title game Dec. 17 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium against No. 4 Hughes High, which ousted defending state champion Coffee in the other semifinal.
“They sold out,” Milton coach Ben Reaves said. “I asked them to come out and leave this field with no regrets and they did exactly that and it showed every single play.”
The Trojans (13-1) were nobody’s patsies. They had won arguably the toughest region in the state (2-5A), came into the game having scored the seventh most points in a season in state history and had won their first three playoff games by a combined 174-21 score. They were powered by AJC Super 11 running back and Florida State signee Ousmane Kromah.
Their last game of the season ended with a running clock in the fourth quarter.
“Great football team,” Lee County coach Dean Fabrizio said. “We knew we’d have to play a dang-near perfect game to beat them, and we didn’t do it. I’ve got to give them all the credit.”
At kickoff, it was 33 degrees in Alpharetta. Fans were bundled in blankets, earmuffs and camouflage coveralls (the last mostly on the Lee County side). In a show of masculinity or foolhardiness (or both), Eagles players warmed up (so to speak) shirtless. The marching bands braved frostbitten lips to play their fight songs and the Imperial March. The din of cowbells and vuvuzelas rang out.
It was a 1 vs. 2 matchup of rare magnitude, either in this state or elsewhere. Fabrizio called it “the one everybody’s been talking about for a little over a month now.”
On top of being the state’s best, Milton was ranked No. 2 nationally by MaxPreps with Lee County checking in at No. 25.
“I mean, I was telling somebody the other day, ‘How are you ranked in the top 25 in the nation of a couple polls but you’re an underdog?’” Fabrizio said Thursday. “You think about that.”
For most of the first half, the playmaking of Lee County quarterback Weston Bryan (a Georgia Southern signee) kept the Trojans in the game. He scored on a run of 71 yards (on a fourth-and-1 in which he pushed into the line and broke through) and two one-yard keepers, the latter of which tied the game at 21 with 8:59 to play in the second quarter. With the Eagles bent on fencing in Kromah, Bryan finished the half with a stunning 203 rushing yards, showing a combination of shiftiness, vision, bullish power and speed. He ended the game with 282 and four touchdowns. Potentially pegged as a tight end at the college level, the 6-foot-4, 243-pounder looks like trouble brewing.
But Milton claimed the game from there, scoring 21 consecutive points to end the half leading 42-21.
Running back T.J. Lester (West Georgia signee) scored on a 19-yard run. Nickel squeezed in a tight-window throw to receiver C.J. Wiley (Georgia signee) for a 23-yard touchdown and then Wiley outraced double coverage to run under a deep shot from Nickel for a 65-yard scoring play. The half ended 42-21 in Milton’s favor. Wiley added a third touchdown in the third quarter, a 61-yarder.
“He’s a legitimate five-star receiver on the field and off the field,” Reaves said. “He played like it (Friday).”
Said Wiley of his long-distance score in the second quarter, “My coach called my name, called my number. I trusted my quarterback and ran my right route and made a play.”
Just that simple.
In the third quarter, Milton’s defense put the brakes on Lee County’s high-octane attack, enabling the Eagles to advance the lead to 56-21 and initiate the running clock. Rated the No. 4 running back in the country, Kromah finished with 69 rushing yards, one more demonstration of Milton’s dominance.
Milton is one game away from back-to-back state titles and the third overall in school history.
With such an array of talent, a state title would stamp it as one of the all-time greats in state history. Eight Eagles seniors are ranked in the top 100 prospects in the state, led by offensive tackle and Clemson signee Brayden Jacobs, who is the No. 8 prospect in the state and No. 51 nationally. Some like Nickel are homegrown, others have come via transfer to be developed by a championship staff and leverage the vast recruiting attention.
Last year, “we felt like were David going up against Goliath,” said defensive lineman Caleb Bell, an Arkansas signee and the son of Georgia great Kendrell Bell. “But now this year, I just feel like we need to keep our foot on their necks and not give them any space, remind everyone who’s at the top.”
It was suggested to Bell that this year’s team sounds more like Goliath.
“Yeah,” he said, “except we’re going to win this one.”
Judging from Friday’s show, it was hard to argue.
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