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Eagles Fall In Senior Night Shootout To Anderson
Milford jumped to a 14-0 lead, but Anderson’s high-powered offense proved to be too much as the Redskins rallied for a 49-35 Eastern Cincinnati Conference Football victory, putting a damper on Senior Night for the Eagles. The Milford defense was able to slow Anderson in the second half to stay in the game before Anderson iced the game with a score and interception in the waning moments.
Behind a returning Blake King at quarterback, the Eagles marched straight down the field to score on the game’s opening possession to jump to a 7-0 lead. King was front and center throughout the drive, hitting Max Brewer for 38 yards early in the drive and then connecting with the senior again from 17 yards out for the game’s first score.
Milford came up with a big play on the ensuing kickoff as Robbie McQueary jumped on a muffed return by Anderson to put the Eagles in business on the Redskins’ 13. Following two false start penalties on the Eagles, King went to the air again, this time hitting Chase Witte from 23 yards out for a quick 14-0 early advantage.
As good as the Eagles were feeling early on, it took less than two minutes of game time for the Redskins to come back to tie the game. A quick 2:13 drive that covered 67 yards ended with Anderson’s Kyle Blaha bulling in from a yard out. Anderson then caught the Eagles off-balance, successful jumping on an on-side kick attempt and then driving 49 yards in 1:29 to even the score.
After the Eagles next drive stalled out, King placed a punt inside the Anderson one-yard line, leaving the Redskins needing to travel the entire length of the field. It somehow took the visitors just 37 seconds to do just that, finishing with Jay Volpenhein throwing his first of four touchdown passes.
Not to be outdone, the Eagles went right back to work to keep the scoring going. With Witte replacing King at quarterback, the Milford offense didn’t miss a beat as he and Dawson Slone rushed the Eagles 74 yards in 13 plays, with the latter plowing the final four yards to again tie the score, this time at 21-all.
The Redskins would keep the scoring going on their final two drives of the first half, as a pair of Volpenhein touchdown passes staked the guests to a 35-21 advantage at the half. They did more of the same on the first play of the second half as Blaha blasted up the middle for a 63-yard touchdown run.
Now down three touchdowns and needing to keep the high-powered Redskins’ offense on the sidelines, Witte led a 16-play, 61-yard drive that took 7:26 off the clock. The drive finished with Witte lobbing a short, five-yard touchdown to Connor Foster for the sophomore’s first career touchdown.
The Eagles were finally able to stop the Redskins’ offense on the next couple of drives and were able to claw back within one touchdown midway through the fourth quarter when Witte again hit Foster, this time from eight yards out to bring the score to 42-35. The Redskins seemed to put the game on ice on their next possession which finished when Volpenhein hit Jake Newton from 30 yards out. Milford tried to stay in it, but on its final two drives were stopped on fourth down first and then intercepted the seal the game.
The final stats showed Anderson with a 479-400 advantage in total yards, however the Redskins were limited to only 158 yards in the second half. The Eagles piled up 258 yards on the ground, with Slone (122) and Witte (117) each topping 100-yards in their final home game. Anderson’s Volpenhein connected on 19 of 27 tosses for 318 yards and four touchdown while Blaha finished with 134 yards rushing and three scores.
Click here for the final Milford-Anderson stats.
The Eagles will wrap up the 2016 campaign, traveling to Glen Este for a 7 p.m. season finale.
