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Monday, December 1, 2008
Millbrook On The Rebound
Raleigh Durham, NC
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Lessons Learned from Punishment by New Bern Last Year
Editor’s Note: High School football playoffs are not as dramatic as a Greek tragedy, but almost. For the Millbrook Wildcats, the2007 season played out in epic proportions, and as the team was preparing to go through the playoffs again in 2008, HighSchoolOT’s Fifth Quarter Reporter Nick Stevens paused in the midst of the momentum to reflect on lessons the Wildcats learned from the lofty highs and the crushing lows.
By the end of the 2007 regular football season, the Millbrook Wildcats weren’t the last Triangle team standing, but Head Coach Clarence Inscore took that team on a great playoff run that they will not soon forget.
REWIND
After a sluggish start back in August 2007, with a 28-6 loss to Garner and a 3-0 win over Knightdale, the Wildcats began to establish themselves as one of the top teams in the Triangle.
They couldn’t beat Leesville Road or Wake Forest –Rolesville, but they did end up in third place in the Cap 7 Conference.
Millbrook received the No. 9 playoff seed that year, traveling to first round action against eighth-seeded West Johnston. It was a rout, with the Millbrook Wildcats running all over the West Johnston Wildcats, winning 62-31.
In the second round, Millbrook had to travel to No. 1 Garner, facing the same Trojan team that beat them handily in the first game of the season. Millbrook returned the favor, and handed Garner an early playoff exit, knocking off the Trojans on their home field, 49-35.
Then Millbrook faced down another opponent that was well-respected on the state level: New Bern.
The Bears had beaten Wake County teams in every round of the playoffs. New Bern seemed confident that they wouldn’t have any trouble beating Millbrook.
The Wildcats knew what they had to do.
With a potent offense, Millbrook drove down the field on its first possession, getting the ball inside the New Bern one-yard line. The Bears held.
Instead of sending the kicker out to hit a field goal, Millbrook went for it.
And came up short.
“There’s always going to be what ifs, especially as a coach. You look at what you could have done different, what you could have called differently,” Inscore said, thinking back to the decision to go for the touchdown on the fourth down.
“That first drive where we got stuffed inside the one, we go for it on fourth down, you know we come away with no points right there. So that’s one you kind of kick yourself over and over again about, but they made a great goal line stand. I’d go for it again,” Inscore said.
Quarterback Brian Kass had three interceptions on the night, one of which turned into a pick-six. Millbrook missed a 36-yard field goal, and the special teams unit allowed a kickoff return for a touchdown.
New Bern eventually built a 10-point lead mid-way through the fourth quarter, but as easy as it would have been for Millbrook to call it a season, the Wildcats didn’t give up.
Kass hit wide receiver Jamal Williams for a 24-yard gain, setting up a three-yard touchdown by Kuwon Eldridge.
“It was tough, but we came out there, and we never gave up,” Kass said of the Millbrook offense. “No matter what, we were going to score, and whether it was Kuwon (Eldridge) or Jamal (Williams), we were going to get the ball in the end zone.”
Some say that you have to have a little bit of luck to win every now and then, and the Wildcats had a little luck on their side.
On the post-touchdown kickoff, the Wildcats attempted the onside kick, sending the ball right at a New Bern player, hitting him in the chest, and bouncing back into the arms of the Wildcats.
Millbrook saw new life.
On Millbrook’s possession, Kass took the snap, stepped back in the pocket, and let one go down field to Scott Gray, a 5’9” sophomore wide receiver.
“I just remember their safety walking up about three yards off me and changing my route with Brian (Kass) to a seam,” Gray said. “Then I remember getting the guy and him not turning with me. Once I saw the ball in the air, I just made sure I grabbed it.”
Gray scored a 51-yard touchdown, putting Millbrook on top 31-27. He thought Millbrook would win.
“I was thinking that ‘we got this; we can definitely hold them off,’ but the next play, they ran the kickoff back for a touchdown, and I remember turning to one of the linemen and saying, ‘let’s just score again.’”
New Bern’s next 75-yard scoring kickoff return put the Bears on top again, 34-31.
The Wildcats played the game out on the ground, eating up clock. Their final scoring drive ended with a big Eldridge run to the New Bern one-yard line, and a short run into the end zone.
Millbrook took the lead with 39.5 seconds left.
But the Wildcats would not win the game.
“You’ve got to play until the final whistle,” Inscore said a year later, as he and his team prepared for the 2008 playoffs.
“I don’t think that’s anything new. We all know that, but I think our sideline got real excited, real emotional,” he added. “We went up four points with 39 seconds left, and they’ve got to drive 70 yards to get a score. Maybe we got a little too excited. We didn’t finish with the intensity that we should have on the field.”
Linebacker Kyle Smith agrees with his coach.
“If anything, we learned that there is nothing guaranteed. Thirty-nine seconds, they had to score a touchdown, and everyone was like ‘sure, we’ve got it won,’ and there they go,” he said.
After a big pass play, the Bears had the ball inside the Millbrook one-yard line with 2.9 seconds left. In two downs, they scored.
Millbrook had fallen to New Bern, the eventual state champion, in the final seconds of play, 40-38.
“We couldn’t have done more than we did tonight,” Inscore told his players, fellow coaches and Millbrook fans on the field as the New Bern players celebrated 50 yards away. “You guys overcame so much in that game, so much. You overcame things that normal teams would not have overcome. The juniors, sophomores, and the freshmen sitting here, you know what lies ahead. You know what you have to do in order to prepare for next season.”
FAST FORWARD TO 2008
Reflecting on the 2007 season and post-season play as his team was embarking on the 2008 playoffs, Inscore was philosophical.
“You know, we were a nine seed last year, and we’re a nine seed this year. We were in third place in the conference last year; we’re in third place in the conference this year,” he said. “There’s lots of similarities, but I hope there’s a happier ending this time.”
This year, Millbrook has 23 seniors. The Wildcats have a quarterback with playoff experience, a running back that is considered one of the best in the area, and a defense that feels they have something to prove.
“Anytime you’ve had success, and you’ve got a lot of kids coming back, you’re looking for even more success that year,” Inscore said. “I think our kids have done a good job of handling the pressure. We had a couple of games in there where we didn’t play the best we could.”
After losing to New Bern last year, Inscore told his players that they needed to learn from the experience, and all indications are that each player took something away from that experience.
Eldridge said he learned from the New Bern game to never give up.
“I just know that it can boil down to the last second, so don’t give up on a play,” he said. “We’re going to have to give it all we got, and not give up on one single play.”
Kass, who made the move to North Carolina from Florida before his junior year, said this is a Millbrook team that has a chip on their shoulder after last season.
“We have something to prove,” Kass said. “You know, people say Raleigh football isn’t anything. Our whole conference is in the playoffs right now, so that in itself says something right there.”
Inscore summed up the importance of these playoffs in a few short sentences.
“The thing we’ve told our kids is that the playoffs are single elimination. Any game could be your last, and you want to go out and prepare for it. The intensity has got to go up; the execution’s got to be there,” he said.
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