Edinburgh can't match Milan's physical play

Senior running back Scott Pennington ran for two touchdowns and kicked a 26-yard field goal to lift visiting Milan to a 31-0 win against Edinburgh in a Class A sectional game Friday night.

For the Indians, who advance to the second round of the sectional, the win marked the second time in three weeks they have gotten past the host Lancers.

Frustrating as it was, third-year coach Bill Unsworth said from beginning to end, it just wasn’t Edinburgh’s night.

“We couldn’t block, we couldn’t tackle and got blown off both sides of the ball,” he said.

“They’re a good, good football team,” Unsworth

added. “They were a lot more physical than we were.”

Edinburgh opened the game with an on-side kick, but Milan recovered, giving the Indians good field advantage at the Lancers 44-yard line.

Pennington capped a five-play drive by scoring from 4 yards out to give Milan a quick 6-0 lead.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Lancers ground game went nowhere but they did pick up a first down on the passing of senior quarterback Sammy Wilkerson.

Milan chewed up yards on the ground and got its second touchdown of the night on a 20-yard pass from junior quarterback Gavin Detraz to Willie Mays.

A two-point conversion made it a 14-0 lead with 4:40 left in the first quarter.

On their next two possessions, Edinburgh’s offense was stalled leading to successive punts.

And before they went to halftime, Milan engineered a four-play, 40-yard drive with another touchdown, this one for 21 yards from Detraz to Mays to make it 21-0.

In the second half, the Lancers were forced to the air in an effort to overcome the 21-point deficit.

But Wilkerson was intercepted for the second time of the night, giving Milan more offensive opportunities.

The Indians drove the ball all the way to the 20-yard line, but a fumble recovery by senior Dakota Sneed gave the Lancers the football with 6:13 left in the third quarter.

Pennington’s field goal made it 24-0, and with 38.7 seconds left in the game, Pennington raced 49 yards for the final score of the night.

Pennington finished with 87 yards on 23 carries, and Jason Hawkins added 88 yards on the ground on eight carries.

The Indians amassed 317 total yards, including 62 passing yards by Detraz.

For the Lancers (4-6), Wilkerson completed 8 of 18 pass attempts for 90 yards.

His leading receivers were Dakota Dayton and Nathan King, each with two catches and 37 yards a piece.

In summing up the season, Unsworth told his players they had accomplished a lot things for their school that hadn’t been done in a long time.

“I told them I hated for the season to end this way, but to remember that this was their best season since 1997 and that’s saying something,” he said. “I hope that’s something we can build on.”