Any good football coach knows the value of putting a chip on his players’ shoulders. It appears that Milton’s Ben Reaves employed that time-honored motivational tool for his new Class 7A champions this season.
“Everybody counted us out all year except those players, those coaches and that community, and that’s all we needed, and now we’re state champions,’’ Reaves said after 10th-ranked Milton beat second-ranked and previously unbeaten Walton 31-21 for the title Wednesday in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The computer Maxwell Ratings had Walton an eight-point favorite.
Truth is, nobody following Milton closely would’ve counted out the Eagles. It was a team full of major Division I prospects – QB Luke Nickel (Miami). WR C.J. Wiley (20+ offers), WR Debron Gatling (Texas A&M), TE Ryan Ghea (Auburn), LB Jacorey Stewart (Kansas), DB Dylan Lewis (Tennessee) and DB Tyler Redmond (Tennessee).
And most are juniors. Milton will be moving to Class 5A next season, so (spoiler alert) Milton will be a preseason No. 1 team in 2024.
Milton started this season ranked No. 6 in Class 7A but lost to two good teams, North Cobb and Florida’s Western, that Milton should’ve beaten. There are rankings consequences to losing games, so Milton fell out of the top 10.
Milton went on to win a sixth straight region title, but there were no high-quality wins left on the schedule to get Milton higher to No. 10 entering the playoffs.
So instead of one of the handful of favorites, the Eagles became the team nobody wanted to play. They defeated No. 3 Colquitt County 39-37, No. 6 Grayson 45-35 and then No. 2 Walton, all region champions.
Walton probably felt that it self-destructed in the final as Milton scored 24 points off turnovers in the second half after trailing 14-7. Jacorey Stewart finished it with a 5-yard interception return for a touchdown with 52 seconds left.
But that’s also called good defense. Stewart and Jack Lawson are as good a pair of linebackers that suited up this season in any class. Two cornerbacks are going to Tennesse. Milton became the first team to hold Walton to less than 35 points.
Nickel was 19-of-25 passing for 201 yards and made himself a candidate for state player of the year. He passed for nearly 3,000 yards this season. Gatling made critical catches repeatedly. No team had better QB-WR talent than Milton.
So Milton won its second state title, first since 2018, each time against a favored 14-0 opponent when Milton entered with two losses.
Looking ahead to 2024, there will be no more underdog mentality. It’s going to be difficult to tag two losses on this juggernaut next time.
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