WEEK 5:Milford vs. Hartland

**Milford's Steve Buglione**
**Hartland's Matt Poches**

**Hartland's Vonn Jones**

Hartland- Hartland's dream season hit a speed bump Friday night when Milford came to town for the Eagle's homecoming. For the first four games Hartland's offense has averaged 44 points a game, with most of that coming in the first halves, but against a hard hitting Maverick defense Hartland looked completely out of sync as Milford built a 10-0 halftime lead.

Milford took the opening kick-off and marched 80 yards down field and capped the game's opening drive with a 10 yard touchdown run from quarterback Steve Buglione. Out of shotgun, Buglione faked a handoff to Duvionn Holland, the Hartland defense bit, and Buglione walked in untouched for the 7-0 lead with 9:39 on the clock in the first quarter.

Milford's ability to mix the pass and the run again found the Mavericks in the red zone. But with their backs against the wall Hartland managed to come up with touchdown saving tackles forcing Milford to settle for a 24 yard field goal and a 10-0 lead.

Vonn Jones took the ensuing kickoff 54 yards and gave his Eagles a short field to work with with six minutes till halftime. The Hartland passing game finally woke up but 5 penalties in the drive forced the Eagles to turn the ball over inside the 20 yard line on downs.

In the third quarter Hartland went to their option run game with Chris Cagle and Kyle Summerfield. The Eagles moved the chains and marched down field. The drive came to a near stall on the 33 yard line when the Eagles faced a 4th-and-4. Hartland gambled and ran a flea flicker play and Cagle hit sophomore Matt Poches for a touchdown.

The Eagle defense came up big and forced Milford into a 3-and-out. The Eagles tied the game up on Zach Minor's 26 yard field goal and the game's momentum had changed and now it seemed like it was Milford's offense that couldn't get in rhythm.

Hartland quickly moved the ball down field again thanks to a 15 yard run from Cagle and a 22 yard catch and run from Jones. But inside the red zone Milford toughened up and forced Hartland to settle for a 24 yard field goal, but a 13-10 lead with 5:29 to play.

Milford answered back with the game winning touchdown drive. The drive was keyed Joe Goodin who took a short pass and turned it into a 40 yard gain. Three plays later Buglione hit Carter Fox for the 7 yard TD. Hartland had once last chance with 3:50 to play but turned the ball over on downs near midfield.

BREAKDOWN

Milford- give the Mavericks credit because they were able to regroup late in the fourth quarter and regain the lead after they fell apart and lost it. Milford did a solid job defensively by taking away Hartland' s big play threats. The Mavericks are now 4-1 and climb back to the top shelf of the KLAA-west division. Milford is a 3 point overtime lost from being undefeated.

Hartland- the Eagles shot themselves in the foot with fumbles and penalties but still almost pulled out the win. Hartland played too conservative and played into Milford's hand by settling for too many plays underneath, they should of used their playmakers and stretched the field more. Hartland will get a chance to get back into first place of the conference race as they travel to 1st place Howell next week.

GAME MVP: Steve Buglione, Milford the quarterback played his best game of the year. He managed drives and made the big play when his team needed it. Buglione racked up 200 yards of offense, 100 with his arm and 100 with his feet.

Vonn Jones, Hartland- Jones has proven to me that he's a football player and not just a basketball play staying busy in the fall. The community calls him Mr. Excitement every time he touches the ball. He made big plays to keep his team a float in all three aspects of the game- offense, defense, special teams. Jones finished with 100 receiving yards, most of them being YAC (yards after catch).

Matt Poches, Hartland- the 6-4 sophomore has scored a touchdown in every game this season and major colleges like Louisville, Tennessee, Ohio State, Michigan, and UCLA are taking notice. Poches made a play on his TD catch by going up over two defenders and still managing to make the touch catch.