In battle of unbeatens, Milton High football falls to Wakefield in Division 3 Super Bowl
FOXBORO – The motto of the Milton High football team, usually displayed beneath a secondary logo of a big cat's paw, is #LeaveAMark.
The Wildcats certainly did that this season, even though they didn't leave Gillette Stadium on Saturday night with the Division 3 Harry Agganis Trophy.
Milton' first-ever appearance in an MIAA Super Bowl revved up after a scoreless first quarter to become an entertaining shootout between two unbeaten heavyweights. Unfortunately for the top-seeded Wildcats they came up just short, falling to No. 6 Wakefield, 34-28.
"The season was way more than I ever dreamed in the beginning," said eighth-year coach Steve Dembowski. "We knew we had a great quarterback (in Owen McHugh) and a great athlete in (running back Jack) Finnegan. And the other kids really rose to the occasion week in and week out. Tonight we just missed some chances to make a play on either side of the ball. We had some tough breaks with penalties that stopped two drives. And in a six-point game, those little mistakes were critical.
"I'm disappointed for my kids. They really wanted it and they worked really hard. But we just didn't make enough plays."
Milton (11-1) got inspired efforts from Finnegan, who ran for 131 yards and three touchdowns, and McHugh, who generated 214 yards of offense, including an acrobatic 13-yard TD run in which he tiptoed down the left sideline and vaulted a defender at the goal line.
In the end, though, Wakefield (13-0) had too much firepower.
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"It was a lot of fun," McHugh said of a season in which he threw for 2,410 yards and 31 touchdowns and ran for 569 yards and five scores. "The team, we’re really close. We had a lot of fun. We made it all the way this far, and I’m very proud of those guys. They all work so hard. It sucks to come up short, but it was a fun season."
The Wildcats were a machine for their first eight games, trailing only three times total – each a modest 7-0 first-quarter deficit. But they found their clutch gene in the latter rounds of the playoffs, rallying from 20-7 down to beat Marblehead in the quarterfinals and coming back from a late 30-26 hole to topple Hanover in the semifinals.
Milton, which never led in the final, toyed with the idea of another second-half comeback but just could not get into position.
Wakefield led 13-7 at halftime. Three times after the break the Warriors extended the lead to two scores. Three times the Wildcats replied to get within striking distance, the last time on Finnegan's 2-yard TD run with 2:36 left. Milton even executed a trick play on the 2-point conversion with Liam McLoughlin throwing to K.J. Beckett to cut the deficit to six points.
Finnegan's onside kickoff did not travel the required 10 yards, though, and despite burning all three of their timeouts, the Wildcats could not prevent Wakefield from picking up three first downs to run out the clock.
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"We just couldn't make a stop to get the ball back," Dembowski said. "You have to credit Wakefield. It's the first time all year that somebody really broke our defense down for the whole game."
Wakefield showcased a versatile attack that generated 257 rushing yards and 186 passing yards. Christian Delgado (12 carries for 119 yards, TD), quarterback Javin Willis (11-72, 2 TDs) and Nathan Delgado (18-54, 2 TDs) did most of the damage on the ground, while Willis was 8-of-12 passing with completions of 66 yards (to tight end Ian Dixon), 37 yards (to receiver Steven Woish) and 33 yards (to Christian Delgado).
"The kid is electric back there," Dembowski said of Willis. "And he's accurate with his passes."
It was Wakefield's first Super Bowl title since 1999 (a 13-6 win over Acton-Boxboro) and capped a playoff run that saw the Warriors knock off each of the top three seeds in the bracket – No. 3 Plymouth South in the quarterfinals, No. 2 North Attleboro in the semis and No. 1 Milton in the final.
"It's the favorite team I've played with my entire life, and I've been playing since I was 4 years old, 5 years old," Willis said. "It's a great bond that we created. I'm going to remember this for the rest of my life."
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Willis' 26-yard TD run on fourth-and-1 opened the scoring early in the second quarter. Milton replied immediately as Finnegan capped an 11-play, 61-yard drive with a 4-yard TD run and kicked the PAT for a 7-7 tie.
Milton sabotaged itself late in the first half, first with a penalty that wiped out Luke Sammon's 32-yard punt return deep into Wakefield territory and then with a dropped pass that could have gone for a 58-yard TD.
Wakefield took a 13-7 lead with 1:08 left in the half on Nathan Delgado's 2-yard TD run to cap a drive that included those Willis completions of 37 and 33 yards.
Milton's first drive of the second half stalled due to three penalties, and Christian Delgado's 60-yard TD run pushed the Warriors into a 19-7 lead.
The teams kept exchanging scores after that as McHugh's 13-yard TD run made it 19-13 but Willis replied with a 9-yard TD run to push the lead back to 27-13.
Finnegan looked to be taking over the game at that point as he scored from a yard out with 10:16 remaining to make it 27-20. His fingerprints were all over that drive as he caught a 32-yard pass and added runs of 19, 10 and 14 yards.
Finnegan finished the season with 848 rushing yards and 18 rushing TDs.
"Jack's a great football player; we knew that coming in," Dembowski said. "He had a fantastic year. He had seven interceptions. He leads Division 3 in scoring. He does so much for us. He got hurt on Thanksgiving (in a blowout win over Braintree). We didn't practice him all week and he still performed at a high level today."
Down 7 with 10 minutes left, Milton appeared to be good shape, but Wakefield answered in pulverizing fashion, crafting an 11-play, 64-yard drive that featured nothing but runs out of a tight double-wing formation. Nathan Delgado capped it with a 1-yard plunge for a 34-20 lead with 4:10 left.
"Obviously, we did a poor job defending the double-wing," Dembowski said. "We couldn't solve it. ... We've seen it before. We prepared for it. We just didn't fit it up right (with our run fits); the ball kept getting inside on us. We missed a ton of tackles."
McHugh (14-of-22 passing for 157 yards; 12 carries for 57 yards) tried to will Milton back one more time, generating all but the final yard on the Wildcats' 73-yard TD drive that brought them within 34-28.
"He's phenomenal at everything he does," Dembowski said of McHugh, an all-league safety who finally became a fulltime starter on offense this season after sitting behind Chase Vaughan for three seasons. "He's the best athlete in the Bay State Conference."
In the end, the comeback attempt fell short, so Milton had to settle for making a giant leap. The program has been a consistent winner under Dembowski, but a state semifinal loss in his first season (2015) and three straight losses in the Division 4 South final (under the old playoff system) from 2017-19 had been the Wildcats' high-water playoff marks before this season.
"Eight years ago we were a dumpster fire, and we've been building to get to this point," Dembowski said. "My coaches have been great; the community has been great. The kids have always bought in. We just didn't make enough plays (tonight)."
Milton will lose 20 seniors to graduation, including McHugh, Finnegan, its top four receivers (Sammon, Mike Fulton, Dillon Mackenzie and Shane Olsen), plus standout two-way linemen such as Drew Cakouros and Liam Faherty.
"We lose a great senior class of 20 kids who have been committed to the program," Dembowski said. "We have a great group behind them. Every group is special. These kids are my oldest daughter's age; I've known them since they were in elementary school, so it's tough to watch them go off (to college), but I'll be really proud of them and what they've done."