Milford football rolls past Hollis Brookline

MILFORD – There’s no secret as to what the Milford High School football team is going to try to do when it has the ball.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy to stop the Spartans.

Hollis Brookline found that out the hard way Friday, as Milford rolled for 369 yards rushing and five touchdowns in a 35-8 win in Division II action.

Evan Perron led the Milford attack with 144 yards and a touchdown on eight carries, while Harrison Urda added 107 yards and two scores and Mitchell Banuskevich had 96 yards and two touchdowns.

“They’re great,” Milford coach Keith Jones said of the trio “They give you a different dimension. You can do different things with them and they force people to really cover the entire field because they can do a bunch of different things.”

And while the Spartans were running wild on offense, their defense was suffocating the Cavaliers for nearly 22 minutes of the first half. Milford (3-1) outgained HB 271-44 in the first half, as the Cavs (0-4) didn’t pick up a first down until their final drive of the second quarter. With 2:40 left in the first half, HB’s offense had a net of zero yards.

For the second straight week, Milford’s starting defense did not allow a point, as HB’s touchdown came in the fourth quarter during running time.

A week after rushing for over 200 yards, Matt Ferenczhalmy had just 47 yards and a touchdown on the ground to lead the Cavs.

“I thought the defense played fantastic,” Jones said. “(Ferenczhalmy) is a talented player and I think the kids did a heck of a job this week respecting that and coming to play and shutting him down. He’s a great player and you give a great player respect. We set it up to make sure he wasn’t going to beat us.”

Ferenczhalmy didn’t and no one else could for the Cavs, as they gained just 133 yards of offense.

“Milford is an excellent team and I expect them to be in the playoffs, but I thought we were going to give them a batter game,” HB coach Rich Bergskaug said. “It’s tough when you get down early. They didn’t do anything that we didn’t think they were going to defensively. It’s a matter of executing and finding what it takes to push the guys. We can’t afford to shoot ourselves in the foot.”

Milford’s first three scores came over a stretch of just seven plays in the first quarter, starting with a roughing the punter call against HB.

Perron, who is the Spartans’ punter, took the snap and rolled to his right, getting off the kick as a Cavs player barreled into him. That gave Milford a first down at midfield, and on the next play, Perron went 51 yards down the far sideline for the game’s first score with 8:26 left in the first.

After a three-and-out by HB, one of six for the Cavs in the first half, the Spartans needed four plays to go 42 yards, scoring on a 14-yard run by Banuskevich. The kick was no good, but Milford lead 13-0 with 5:35 remaining in the quarter.

Another punt by HB gave Milford the ball at its own 38, and after an incomplete pass, Urda danced his way through a few tackles and got a couple of good blocks on his way to a 62-yard touchdown run. Ross Briggs’ kick hit off the upright, but with 2:53 still left in the first, it was 19-0 Milford.

The Spartans began to sputter on offense in  the second quarter, until a big punt return by Banuskevich gave Milford the ball at the HB 32. Four plays later, Banuskevich scored from a yard out to make it 27-0 with 2:40 to go until halftime.

HB finally got going on the ensuing drive, thanks in part of a 28-yard completion from Austin Pigott to Nick Garside. The Cavs moved down to the Milford 28, but on fourth-and-5, Pigott was sacked by Jahir Romney to turn the ball over on downs.

The Cavs started to move again on their first drive of the second half, getting to the Spartans’ 31, but another sack, this time by Briggs, left HB with a second-and-22, and Pigott was intercepted by Max Urda on the next play.

Milford turned the miscue into points. Harrison Urda kept the ball on fourth-and-1, made it through the line and outran the defense to the end zone for a 39-yard scoring run that made it 35-0 with 24 seconds left in the third.

“Harrison Urda is an excellent player,” Bergskaug said. “The fact that he was literally wrapped up and spun out of a tackle, that’s him being a ball player. They’re experience is second to none and they do it every year. They do it well. They run three plays very, very, very well. It was no secret.”