Milton, Roswell Strong Contenders For Region Football Titles

By Mike Blum

MILTON, GA — After one week of region play, Milton and Roswell are both headed for near-certain state playoff berths, with the Eagles appearing to be the top team in 5-AAAAAAA and the Hornets no worse than the second best team in 4-AAAAAAA.

Both teams opened region play last week with lopsided wins on their home fields. Milton demolished West Forsyth High School 41-0, and Roswell broke open a tight game with four fourth-quarter touchdowns to defeat Cherokee High School 48-21.

Milton plays Friday night at South Forsyth, with the winner very likely to capture the region championship. South Forsyth won last week 27-10 over Lambert to improve its record to 4-2 overall, the same as Milton. Roswell is at home Friday night against Lassiter, one of four teams in the six-team region that already has one region loss.

The Trojans lost to region favorite Walton 38-24 last week. Milton also lost to South Forsyth 21-13 last season, with South Forsyth going on to capture the region title and Milton finishing second with wins over the other three teams in the region. The Eagles played a strong non-region schedule, defeating state-ranked Archer in their season opener and adding victories over local rival Alpharetta and a top team from Florida before losing back-to-back games by a combined three points to Roswell and Parkview, both unbeaten and state-ranked at the time.

All four of South Forsyth’s victories have come against teams with losing records. Both the War Eagles’
losses have come against unbeaten opponents – Blessed Trinity, the No. 1 team in the state in AAAA, and Hillgrove, one of the top-teams in AAAAAAA. While Milton features a balanced offense led by dual threat senior quarterback Jordan Yates, South Forsyth is predominantly a running team and completed just three passes in last week’s win over Lambert.

Yates had a hand in all four of Milton’s offensive touchdowns last week against West Forsyth, passing for
156 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 81 yards and two scores. The Eagles scored their first two touchdowns on a 45-yard fumble return by Jordan Davis and the recovery of a blocked punt in the end zone.

Milton scored two touchdowns in both the second and third quarters, with Yates passing to Dylan
Leonard for 28 and 20-yard scores and adding scoring runs of 3 and 19 yards. Leonard finished with six
receptions for 91 yards. On the season, Yates has completed 76 of 124 passes for 938 yards and nine touchdowns with three interceptions. Holden Shaw leads the Eagles with 24 receptions, with Leonard and Jordan Cox next with 16 catches each. Cox leads the team with 330 yards and three touchdowns, with Leonard and Shaw each catching two touchdown passes.

The Eagles average almost 200 yards rushing per game, led by Josh Edwards, who has gained 561 yards
and scored eight touchdowns on 100 carries. Yates has carried 72 times for 336 yards with four rushing
touchdowns.

After yielding almost 24 points per game in their first five contests, the Eagles came up with their first shutout of the season last week. Davis leads the team from his middle linebacker position along with safety Joe Charleston and outside linebackers Jack Rhodes and Allen Walker.

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Roswell is 5-1 after a strong all-around showing last week against Cherokee. The Hornets scored three defensive touchdowns and blocked two punts, while the offense scored four touchdowns, two rushing
and two passing. Josh Reid and John Michael DiRoberto scored on interception returns of 64 and 61 yards, and Sam Antona had a fumble recovery for a touchdown. Tyron Hopper had a non-scoring interception return of 49 yards and sophomore Marquis Willis blocked two Cherokee punts. DiRoberto led the Hornets in
tackles for the game and also had a pair of sacks.

Junior quarterback Ethan Roberts completed just seven passes in the game, but they went for 131 yards,
including touchdowns to Tripp Cooper and John Copenhaver. Kamonty Jett rushed for 137 yards and
two scores as the Hornets raised their season scoring average to 35 points a game. With the exception of a 37-36 loss to Wheeler in their final non-region game, the Hornets have not allowed more than 21 points in a game this season. DiRoberto, Reid, Hopper and Antona have led the defensive effort along with Doneiko Slaughter, Matt Huelsman, Will Troutman, Khaleed Mobley and Shaun Rosenquist.

Offensively, Roberts has passed for almost 1100 yards and 12 touchdowns in six games, and is averaging
more than 17 yards per completion. Copenhaver leads the team in receptions (21) and yards (402) and is tied for the lead in receiving touchdowns with Jacob Jarrett with four. Jarrett is second behind Copenhaver in both catches (20) and yards (250). Cooper has 14 receptions for 241 yards and two scores.

The Hornets face a 1-5 Lassiter team this week that has played a difficult schedule. Roswell will need to avoid looking past the Trojans to next week’s game at Walton, which will likely decide the region title. The Raiders are unbeaten and ranked second in the state in Class AAAAAAA by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and feature a talent-laden roster led by one of the state’s top college prospects.

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

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