On Friday evening, Milford traveled to Odessa to open Class 2A District 2 play. On a two-game winning streak, Milford looked like they would be able to put up a good fight. Nothing however could have been further from the truth. First year coach Rod Milstead is building a culture in Milford and there are going to be teachable moments. This game will be one of them. Make no doubt about it, Odessa was the better team while Milford gave their hosts every advantage they could have hoped for.
In dropping the game 44-6, Milford did so many things poorly, it was astounding. Perhaps the most shocking thing of all was the performance of the defense, which showed up anything but ready to play. While outmatched, it was not the skill of Odessa that spelled doom for the Bucs, it was the number of mental mistakes that doomed Milford.
After Milford had moved into Odessa territory and turned the ball over on downs, the Milford mental breakdowns immediately began to manifest themselves. In over 15 years of covering high school football, I have never seen anything like what unfolded during the first half of the game. During the first half, Milford committed at least nine offside penalties. It wasn’t just one member of the Buccaneer defensive front who committed the penalty, it seemed as if everyone wanted to get involved in the penalty party. Even when Milford appeared to have finally forced Odessa to punt, the Ducks fooled the Buccaneers on a fake punt from mid-field for a 50-yard touchdown run by the up back.
While penalties were the biggest problem, they were not the only ones for Milford. There were blown assignments by defensive backs, pre-snap penalties and missed assignments on offense and a general feeling that Milford didn’t belong on the same football field as Odessa. Speaking with Milstead following the game, it was clear he knew there is a lot of work to be done.
“We are a first year program and you are going to have some bad games, this was one of them. Odessa is a very good football team, and you can’t simply give them free yardage and expect to compete with them. Tonight was a real learning experience for the entire team. While I was happy that the guys competed to the end, you can’t make the number of mistakes we made tonight and expect to win a football game against any team, especially one like Odessa.”
The lone bright spot for Milford came at the end of the first half as junior Andrew Sivels returned a kickoff 85 yards for the Buccaneers lone score. A failed two-point conversion would send the teams into the locker room with Odessa holding a 30-6 advantage, which felt much bigger.
Milford did play better in the second half, but with Odessa able to apply pressure up front when Milford tried to open up their passing game, senior quarterback Cayden Jarrett was under constant pressure. The defense for Milford was better, however, as they rectified some mistakes they had been making. The most important thing was, the players didn’t like losing, especially in this fashion.
“I believe in our guys, we knew there would be nights like this. We are going to learn from it, we are going to correct the mistakes and become a better football team. This game is over now, but the lessons that we are going to learn from it are going to make us a better football team. It’s not getting punched in the mouth that loses you the fight, it’s taking that punch and nor fighting back. I believe we have a team that can take a punch, and we are going to have to gather ourselves as we face another good opponent in Red Lion next Friday.” Milstead concluded.
Milford will host Red Lion Christian Academy with a 7pm start time.
