This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

(WITH PHOTO GALLERY, VIDEO) Hartland Football Wins Home Opener

Eagles outlast stingy Livonia Franklin 15-6.

Big plays on defense helped the Hartland High School football team get back on track Thursday night.

Trailing 6-0 in the first quarter, the Eagles took advantage of a fumble recovery and an interception on back-to-back drives to pull ahead of Livonia Franklin, 9-6.

Hartland held its ground the rest of the way and earned a 15-6 win to improve to 1-1 on the season.

“It feels great,” said junior quarterback Stephen Milarch, who made a trio of key plays including tossing a key touchdown pass late in the fourth-quarter to help seal the game for the Eagles. “We fought hard and eventually got it done.”

That drive began on Franklin's 44 as the Eagles used up nearly four minutes on eight plays and Milarch connected with senior captain Trey Conner on a four-yard touchdown pass.

“Our kids played their tails off on both sides of the ball,” said Hartland head coach Marcus Dukes. “We changed field position and got that scoring drive and put them in a position where they had to go a long way to score.”

Find out what's happening in Hartlandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Milarch also rushed for Hartland's first touchdown on a third-and-goal situation from Franklin’s 1-yard line to even the score at 6-6. (Hartland missed the extra point). The Eagles took the lead after Milarch came up with a pick-off on Franklin's next possession that led to an Alec Bain 33-yard field goal.

“After having an opportunity to win last week and falling short, to come back and play a good Franklin team and get a ‘W’ is huge for us,” said Dukes, referring to a 28-25 loss to Ann Arbor Skyline.

Find out what's happening in Hartlandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Milarch was 11-for-23 through the air for 109 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. There were several near catches among the 12 passes that were incomplete.

“Everybody was sweating so bad, it was hot,” Milarch said. “Can’t really blame them for that. We’ll work harder on the fundamentals next week.”

Senior Travis Spears made up for some of that by gaining 113 yards on 17 carries.

“He was running well, hard,” Milarch said.

Franklin gained just 37 yards through the air and 122 on the ground.

“We played as a team,” senior linebacker Cameron Fritts said. “We were quick to the attack and we had real good pursuit. Basically, we saw we needed to make plays. We read our keys and went downhill fast. They wanted to hit us and we wanted to hit them. We were more physical in the end.

“I’m really proud of the way our team played.”

Up next for the Eagles is the Howell Highlanders in the opening of Kensington Lakes Activities Association West Division play on 7 p.m. Sept. 9 at home.

“You’ve got to like to play Howell,” Dukes said. “They’re always a good, solid team. They have a similar physicality on both sides of the ball, just like we saw from Franklin tonight.”

Download the movie

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?