ATLANTA — Milton High School Eagles defeated the Walton Raiders in the Class 7A GHSA State Football Championship game Dec. 13 at Mercedes Benz-Stadium.
The 31-21 victory marks the second state title for the Eagles, who won against the Colquitt County Packers in 2018.
Ranked eighth in the nation, the Raiders were favored. Milton head coach Ben Reaves said everyone also counted his team out because of losses early in the year.
But, Reaves, who served as the offensive coordinator during the 2018 championship, said the outcome was a surprise to everyone but his team. The Eagles made it to the state semi-finals last season, the final four.
“We’ve always believed in ourselves,” he said in a hoarse voice the following day. “We always knew that we had a state championship-caliber team.”
Reaves said the title shows the tremendous amount of hard work and dedication of Milton’s football team, practicing Monday through Thursday since the last week of July, and from the coaches, from everyone.
“… Just to be able to take the physical beating day after day after day, because football is just such a rough sport, and still be standing in mid-December playing your best football … It was good for it to all come to fruition, and for everybody to, quote-on-quote, get paid last night,” Reaves said.
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