The two coaches hugged at midfield, one the state champion and the other the runner-up. They parted, Milton High coach Ben Reaves to celebrate with his team and Hughes High coach Daniel Williams to console his.
“Whew!” Ben Reaves exhaled, seeming very much to mean it.
No. 1 Milton, undefeated and ranked as high as No. 2 nationally, arrived at Mercedes-Benz Stadium Tuesday seeking a second consecutive state championship. No. 4 Hughes High sought to upend a talent-oozing powerhouse and capture a second state title in three years.
The Eagles got what they wanted in a 56-35 win for the Class 5A state championship. They claimed a victory that completed their season at 15-0 and earned a spot among the state’s all-time champions. The Panthers (13-2) bused home with something less grandiose, but possibly as meaningful as their runner-up trophy.
“Most definitely,” teary-eyed Hughes quarterback Christian Langford said, asked if he thought Milton realized how much of a fight his team had given the Eagles. “They most definitely got that message.”
Until Tuesday, Milton’s path to the state final game had been relatively easy, not a surprise for a team with eight seniors ranked among Georgia’s top 100 recruits and bound for Georgia, Tennessee, Clemson and other power-conference schools. Each of Milton’s first four playoff games had finished with a running clock, the victory cigar earned by attaining a 30-point lead by the end of the third quarter.
Not at all bereft of talent but considered a heavy underdog, Hughes made the Eagles labor as much or more than any team in Milton’s path this season, which included nationally ranked Buford High (Class 6A state semifinalist), Blessed Trinity (Class 4A state semifinalist), Lee County High (Class 5A semifinalist and a team ranked in the nation’s top 50 in multiple polls) and American Heritage High of Florida, that state’s Class 4A state champ and another nationally ranked program.
“I think we played with them right there in the first half,” said Williams, the Hughes coach.
Thanks to a slow start offensively, a foiled fake punt and costly pass-coverage breakdowns, Hughes fell behind 21-7 in the first quarter. But, in a frantic second quarter, the Panther rallied to tie the game at 21, then 28 and then 35. The two teams scored touchdowns on 10 of 11 consecutive possessions in a manic back-and-forth display of playmaking talent.
The Panthers may not have been the most talented team that Milton has faced this season, but perhaps the most unrelenting.
“This team, it’s not a lot of firepower if you look at what the (state champion) 2022 team had,” Williams said Monday afternoon at the school, a day before the final. “But the dawg in this team is through the roof. Listen, the dawg in this team is crazy.”
When Maurice Gleaton crossed the goal line with a 65-yard touchdown reception from Langford with 50 seconds left in the first half to tie the score at 35, the Panthers became the first team to cross the 30-point threshold against Milton this season. The Eagles surely understood that the Panthers were intent on hounding them all night, even up Ga. 400 if necessary.
“A blow-for-blow game, and I knew that it was going to be that way because they were so explosive, so fast, so physical,” said Reaves, the Milton coach. “They were a team that was going to challenge us and they came out and did that.”
But Milton was undaunted. With the score tied at 35 after Gleaton’s score, Luke Nickel, Milton’s Miami-bound quarterback, led a textbook two-minute drive. Starting with 42 seconds left, he took the Eagles 63 yards in four plays with just one timeout at his disposal. He finished it off with an absurdly precise strike in the end zone to wide receiver and Georgia signee C.J. Wiley to evade coverage and score the team’s sixth touchdown of the half in seven possessions for a 42-35 lead.
“Their offense can score fast, very fast, and they’re efficient,” said Hughes receiver/safety Jabari Jones, a Jackson State signee.
Nickel led another touchdown drive to open the second half and Hughes couldn’t answer. The Eagles added another touchdown in the fourth quarter for the final margin.
“A well-oiled machine,” Williams said of the Eagles. “You can’t make mistakes against them. They make you pay for your mistakes and they did tonight for us.”
Hughes could have made it closer if not for a few mistakes. But the game was a tribute to both programs, two of the state’s best. Milton won back-to-back state titles for the first time in school history, having won the Class 7A championship last year. Nickel was practically perfect, completing 21 of 22 passes for 413 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions.
“It’s so cool,” Nickel said of completing the back-to-back journey. “Just something that’s been on my mind forever. I’ve always wanted to be the quarterback here and go do something special.”
“I’m just thankful that our guys stuck with the game plan for four quarters and just continued to trust in us as coaches and just leave it all on the field,” Reaves said.
Hughes pushed a team that is ranked second in the country by three polls and distinguished itself in doing so.
“At the end of the game, it hurt,” said Langford, the Hughes quarterback. “We went out there, we gave it our all.”
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