MILTON – With the regular season dwindling and district playoffs on the mind of the Black Panthers, the home team entered the senior night with one goal in mind. Taking care of business.
Entering with just one loss on the season, the Milton Black Panthers hosted the winless Cowanesque Valley Indians and were able to accomplish their goal.
“Our goal was to execute and do the things we wanted to do,” said Milton coach Phil Davis. “I was happy with the way we played overall. We still have some things to clean up, but I thought we played well tonight.”
Milton scored early and often, cruising out to a 42-0 first-half lead and eventually closing the book on a 50-6 victory.
Cale Bastian looked good tossing the rock, completing four of six passes for 119 yards and three touchdowns, though the Black Panthers’ run game also looked quite solid. Milton ran for four touchdowns in the game, all by different running backs.
“It feels good, but at the end of the day none of that would happen if it wasn’t for the guys up from making their blocks and executing on every play the best they can,” said Bastian of his performance. “They gave me a lot of time on my dropbacks. That makes everything a lot easier for everyone in the backfield.”
“Our focus this week was to make sure our seniors went out on a high note on their senior night,” added Davis on his team’s flexibility. “We got some seniors some touches that haven’t gotten many touches over the course of the year and we were happy with that.”
Bastian’s strong performance started on the first drive of the game. He opened the game with completion to senior wideout Xzavier Minium, then hit Minium three plays later for a 24-yard touchdown.
After forcing Cowanesque Valley to a three-and-out on their first offensive possession, Bastian again showed off his arm on a 30-yard pass to tight end Ashton Krall for a score.
In a 13-0 game, Cowanesque Valley looked to get momentum on their side in the opening quarter. With Milton driving and threatening to score yet again, sophomore cornerback Fletcher Good was able to pick off Bastian at the goal line and return the ball to the Indians’ seven-yard line. Unfortunately for the visitors, two plays later the Black Panthers forced a fumble and got the ball right back. A scrum for the ball in the middle of the field ensued and Milton’s Nolan Loss emerged from the pile with the football. On the very next play, Milton scored its first rushing touchdown of the night when senior Dillan Ando found paydirt.
Milton went on to dominate the first half from there. Krall made a huge defensive play to go along with his touchdown scored. In the second quarter, he earned an interception that set up a short field for Trey Locke to find the endzone.
Later in the quarter, Bastian threw his third touchdown pass of the night, this time connecting on a long bomb to speedy wideout Peyton Rearick for a 64-yard score. Freshman running back Jaeden Canelo also scored a rushing touchdown in the opening half of play.
Cowanesque Valley erased the zero from the scoreboard and didn’t take long to do so in the second half. Just three plays into the half, Good broke free up the middle on a 43-yard touchdown run for what would be Cowanesque Valley’s lone score of the night.
The Black Panthers used long, methodical drives to run down the clock in the second half. Milton scored in the third quarter on a nine-play drive where they converted a pair of fourth downs as second-string quarterback Chase Lytle snuck into the endzone for the score.
Milton also strung together a 12-play drive in the fourth quarter that ran nearly all of the time off the clock. The drive took nine minutes and 43 seconds and ended when the Black Panthers failed to score on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line. On the following play, a host of Black Panthers swarmed the Indians in the backfield to earn a safety that effectively ended the game, as Milton could line up in the victory formation from there.
“I thought we played really hard and executed pretty well,” said Davis. “I’m glad to be coming out of here injury free and ready to move on to next week.”
Milton improved its record to 8-1 on the season and close the regular season on a road trip to Warrior Run (3-6). If the Black Panther takes care of business in that game, they will host Selinsgrove in the opening round of District 4 playoffs.
“A win like this makes us feel really good,” said Bastian. “We’ve got a long way to go. A lot of things to fix and work on, but we’re feeling pretty good about it.”
Milton 48, Cowanesque Valley 6
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Cowanesque Valley 0 0 6 0 – 6
Milton 20 22 6 2 – 50
First Quarter
M—Xzavier Minium 24-yard reception from Cale Bastian (Trace Witter PAT Good), 9:33
M—Ashton Krall 30-yard reception from Bastian (PAT No Good), 6:03
M—Dillan Ando 4-yard run (Witter PAT Good), 1:55
Second Quarter
M—Trey Locke 5-yard run (Bastian run), 11:19
M—Peyton Rearick 64-yard reception from Bastian (Witter PAT Good), 7:29
M—Jaeden Canelo 11-yard run (Witter PAT Good), 2:31
Third Quarter
CV—Fletcher Good 43-yard run (PAT No Good), 10:07
M—Chase Lytle 6-yard run (PAT No Good), 3:17
Fourth Quarter
M—Good (-1)-yard run. Safety, 1:51.
TEAM STATISTICS CV M
First downs 6 14
Total yards 122 397
Rushes-yards 28-126 38-263
Yards passing -4 134
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 1-6-2 5-7-1
Fumbles-lost 3-1 1-0
Penalties-yards 1-5 1-5
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Cowanesque Valley: Good 13-81 TD, Tim Freeman 12-38, Graham Hess 2-8, Carter Ackley 1-(-1). Milton: Canelo 11-101 TD, Montgomery Fisher 5-75, Mason Rowe 3-37, Jostein Minyety 6-13, Lytle 4-9 TD, Minium 1-9, Locke 2-8 TD, Brady Wolfe 2-8, Ando 2-5 TD, TEAM 2-(-2).
PASSING—Cowanesque Valley: Hess 1-5 -4 yards 2 INT, Ackley 0-1. Milton: Bastian 4-6 119 yards, 3TD, INT; Lytle 1-1 25 yards.
RECEIVING—Cowanesque Valley: Good 1-(-4). Milton: Rearick 1-64 TD, Krall 1-30 TD, Minium 2-25 TD, Cole Rhodes 1-25.
