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History Made, Mission Accomplished; Eagles Close Perfect Regular Season In Style
On a night with a perfect season, an outright Eastern Cincinnati Conferece title and the regional No. 1 seed all on the line, Milford delivered, doubling up Turpin 42-21 to cap the greatest regular season in the history of the school. Junior QB Caden Bailey, thrust into his first starting assignment played like a seasoned pro, connecting on four touchdown passes to push the Eagles into the playoffs on a high note. The victory secured Milford’s first outright league title since 1986 and its first since sharing the 2017 ECC crown.
Bailey was dynamite from the outset, throwing three first-half TDs as the Eagles jumped to a 21-0 lead at the break. After being bottled up for much of the night, senior RB Nathan Webster came alive in the second half, finishing with 98 yards and a pair of touchdowns, to push him over the 1,000-yard mark for the season; even more impressive as he played just nine regular season games.
Milford came out firing despite a steady drizzle that dropped on the Eagle Stadium Powered by Cullen Electric Field for much of the first half. On its second drive, Bailey tossed a screen to Reece Davis and the dynamic wideout did the rest, weaving through traffic for a 42-yard touchdown. After Turpin turned it over on downs on its next possession, Bailey needed just three plays to connect with Davis again, this time on 40-yard strike to push the edge out to 14-0.
With time winding down on the first half, Milford used a little trickery to go up by 21. Ashton Warther was on the receiving end of a Bailey bomb from 27 yards out following a nicely executed double reverse flea flicker.
Milford kept its foot on the gas on its first drive of the third quarter going up 28-0 on Bailey’s fourth TD toss of the night, this time a 29-yarder to Jacob Luecke. It proved to be a Senior Night to remember for Luecke, Milford’s three-year punter and a back-up wide receiver as his first career varsity catch went for a score.
Turpin began to come to life on its drive following the Eagles score as it marched 80 yards in 13 plays to claw within 28-7 with just over five minutes remaining in the third. The Spartans tried to make things interesting as they cut the lead to 28-14 early in the fourth on a Devan Nigam to Luke Jilek TD pass. Webster would answer, breaking loose from 20 yards out for his first score of the night.
The visitors came back again with another long drive, this time going 80 yards in 10 plays with Nigam connecting on his second TD pass of the night to again trim the Eagle lead to just 14. But as he’s done so many times this season, Webster put his team on his back, gaining 40 hard-earned yards, including the final 27 for a touchdown that put the game out of reach. Will Reid put an exclamation point on the win with an interception on Turpin’s final possession.
With his big 98-yard, two-touchdown night, Webster vaults himself up on a pair of Milford season leader lists. His 1,016 yards rank seventh in school history, just ahead of his older brother Natwan. His 17 rushing touchdowns are good for fifth.
Bailey completed passes to six different receivers with Warther hauling in a team-best six passes (53 yards), with Davis topping the yards category with 87. Webster hauled in four passes for 45 yards to give him a 143 from scrimmage for the night.
Andrew Littrell paced the Eagle defense with 14 tackles. The Milford D which allowed its most points since Week 5, close the regular season having allowed just 35 points in its last 22 quarters of action.
Slightly overlooked in the night of so much history being made, Eagle head coach Tom Grippa walked away with the 225th win of his long coaching career and his 50th since taking over the Milford program in 2017.
The Eagles will now await their first round playoff match-up, but unofficially they will host 16th-seeded Fairfield next Friday night.
Click here for final game stats.
