Millbrook football
FILE PHOTO
On Millbrook senior night, Scott Gray recorded a milestone game, reaching the end zone four times in the Wildcats' 42-35 victory over Enloe Friday.
Gray, Wildcats shrug off Enloe
Needing a win in its regular-season finale to keep its postseason plans intact, the playoffs arrived a week early for the Millbrook football team.
So, too, did the heroic playoff performances and postseason drama.
Scott Gray scored four touchdowns for the first time in his life and Kendall Whitehead picked off an Enloe pass to stave off a late threat as the Wildcats won 42-35 on their home field Friday night.
With the win, Millbrook — which had lost four of its last six games entering Friday — secured a playoff berth with a 6-5 record.
“We knew this was a playoff game so we wanted a game to remember,” Gray said.
Gray, a senior wide receiver, will not be forgetting this one.
Filling in for the injured Keith Marshall in the backfield, Gray rushed for three scores, including a 74-yard burst straight up the middle on the first play of the game. Coming into the game averaging fewer than six carries and 27 yards per outing, Gray finished with 117 yards on 16 attempts.
“Keith has rushed for over 1,100 yards this year so (Gray) had a lot of weight on his shoulders,” said Wildcat coach Clarence Inscore.
“I played running back in middle school,” Gray said. “I was just trying to find the holes and make plays.”
Gray added scoring jaunts of six and eight yards but saved his best effort for special teams.
After Enloe’s David Highsmith scored on a one-yard run with 10 seconds left in the first half to take a 21-14 lead, the Eagles attempted an onside kick that was recovered by Millbrook’s Justus Hoffmann. Hoffmann ran for a few yards before being bottled up, but as he was, the ball squirted out and found its way right to Gray.
“I was just kind of standing there and the next thing I knew the ball was right at my feet,” Gray said. “So I just picked it up and went.”
Gray outraced the Eagles down the left sideline with no time left on the clock to force a tie ball game at the half.
Tied again at 28-28 late in the third quarter, it was quarterback Trey McFarland’s turn in the spotlight. McFarland called his own number on a first down play at midfield and cut up the middle for a 51-yard touchdown run, putting the Wildcats back on top.
After the ensuing kickoff was fumbled by the Eagles and recovered by Millbrook’s Bilal Corbin, McFarland started the fourth quarter with a 33-yard touchdown lob to Michael Thornton for a 42-28 lead.
Thornton’s score, which came just 1:40 after McFarland’s, was the tenth touchdown of the game but marked the first time either team had gone up by more than a single score.
“(McFarland) put that right on the money. That was a great touch,” Inscore said.
Enloe then orchestrated a 16-play, 80-yard scoring drive that ate up more than six minutes of clock and brought the Eagles back to within a touchdown. The defense followed suit by forcing a three-and-out by the Wildcats, and Enloe got the ball back with four minutes left.
The Eagles drove inside the Millbrook 40-yard line, but an Andrew Favaron sack forced Enloe QB Phillip Jordan to go to the air with just over a minute left. That's when Whitehead came up with the interception to seal the win.
Prior to Whitehead’s pick, the Wildcats kept Enloe out of the end zone just once all night, a third-quarter fumble that was recovered by Marcus Plummer.
In the first half, Millbrook possessed the ball for less than five minutes and ran just three plays in the second quarter. During that second quarter, Enloe pieced together an 83-yard touchdown drive that took 27 plays and chewed more than 11 minutes off the clock.
“Their offense is so hard to prepare for and it’s so hard to find the ball carrier,” Inscore said of Enloe’s deceptive attack which often features no wide receivers. “They keep the ball for a long time when they get it.”
For the game, Enloe rushed the ball 78 times and threw just seven passes. The Eagles ran an astonishing 85 plays from scrimmage to Millbrook’s 33.
“It’s very tough to simulate it (in practice),” Gray said.
But Gray and the Wildcats had their performance down by show time.
