Roswell, Milton Football Rivalry Back In Spotlight

By Mike Blum

The high school football rivalry between Roswell and Milton is one of the oldest and most intense in the
metro Atlanta area, but for the last 35 years, it hasn’t been a very competitive rivalry. Since 1983, Roswell is 27-6 in games between the two schools, with three of Milton’s wins coming in succession from 2011-13, when the Hornets suffered through their first extended rough patch in more than three decades.

Roswell’s domination of the series began in 1983, the year before Milton’s program bottomed out with
the first of three straight winless seasons. The Hornets won 14 in a row from 1983 to 1995, including a last-
second 28-27 victory in the 1993 region playoffs that crushed a home crowd at Milton.

The Eagles finally snapped the streak with a 19-0 win in 1996, and won again in 2000 following a break in
the series in 1998 and 1999 due to region realignments. The Hornets responded with seven straight wins
over the Eagles, the last three coming during a Roswell run that included a shared state title and a
quarterfinal loss to the eventual state champion (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app).

One of Milton’s best teams of the past several decades ended that streak with a 20-19 victory in 2008,
and the Eagles scored three straight victories from 2011 to 2013, catching the Hornets in a rare losing stretch.
Milton sported two of its best teams in 2012 and 2013, and was even better the next year, going 9-1 in
the regular season and scoring the only two state playoff victories in school history. Their lone regular
season loss in 2014 came against Roswell, which scored late to pull out a 33-31 victory in one of the
most memorable games in the series, which began in 1950.

The 2014 Roswell-Milton game was one of a relatively small number in the more recent history of the
rivalry that came in a season when both schools fielded strong football teams.

After the Milton program recovered from a 37-game losing streak that ended in 1987, the Eagles posted
back-to-back 8-2 records in 1992 and 1993, but lost three times the Hornets, who went 9-1 and 8-2 and
scored a pair of thrilling wins against the Eagles in 1993. The Hornets slipped to 4-6 in 1994, but one of their
wins was a 14-10 victory over a 7-3 Milton team.

Not only did Milton end a 14-game losing streak to Roswell in 1996, the Eagles did it against a Roswell
team that went 8-2 and reached the second round of the state playoffs. The Eagles’ next win over the
Hornets in 2000 came against a Roswell team that also went 8-2 and won a playoff game, with the
victory the highlight of a 5-5 Milton season.

Two of Milton’s last four wins over the Hornets in 2008 and 2011 came by one point, with the Eagles’
pulling out a 14-13 decision in 2008 that was one of a number of disheartening defeats in a 0-10 Roswell
season. Although the two schools are located within close proximity and play in the same classification, the GHSA has placed them in separate regions, and Friday’s game at Roswell will be the final non-region game this season for both schools.

Milton comes into the game 3-1 with wins over local rivals Alpharetta and Cambridge as well as Etowah,
which plays in Roswell’s region. The Eagles’ lone loss came against state-ranked North Gwinnett, a
contender in its 7A region. Roswell is 1-3 with its three losses coming against unbeaten South Forsyth in overtime, unbeaten Archer last week in a game the Hornets were in position to win in the final two minutes, and state-ranked Colquitt, which has just one loss. The Hornets’ victory came against 7A playoff contender Central Gwinnett.

Milton has played only one game in the past three weeks, while the Hornets were off the week prior to
their loss to Archer. The Eagles sport a balanced attack, with quarterback Jordan Yates passing for 731 yards and seven touchdowns and rushing for three scores, and running back Solomon Vanhorse rushing for 100 yards in all four Milton games, carrying 65 times for 490 yards and three scores. Vanhorse has also caught two touchdown passes and threw one to Yates in the win over Etowah.

Roswell quarterback Cordell Littlejohn has passed for 485 yards and three touchdowns and has rushed for two touchdowns, while workhorse running back Kamonty Jett has carried 111 times for 488 yards and five
touchdowns, highlighted by a 227-yard game in the Hornets’ win over Central Gwinnett.

The biggest difference in the two teams is between the two offensive lines. The Eagles sport a large, veteran group with three returning starters and one of the area’s top underclassmen – 6-6, 315-pound sophomore Jack Tchio.

Roswell lost 26 of its top 28 players from a team that went 28-2 the last two seasons, with both losses
coming in state championship games. Among the losses were all five starters in the offensive line,
leaving the Hornets with an inexperienced group that is not that big by modern standards.

An equally inexperienced Roswell defense has held up pretty well against some strong offenses thus far,
holding Archer’s offense scoreless in the second half after being soundly outplayed in the first two
quarters. Outside linebacker Tyron Hopped and safety Sam Antona have led the Roswell defensive effort
thus far.

Milton also returned a mostly veteran group on defense led by region Defensive Player of the Year Justin
Blanks and has played well this season, although North Gwinnett managed 31 points while playing most of the game with its backup quarterback.

Both teams are expected to contend for playoff berths in their regions. Although only 1-3, Roswell should be competitive in a region with no apparent dominant team. Walton is the region’s only unbeaten team, with Lassiter, Woodstock and Etowah also potential playoff teams.

Unbeaten South Forsyth is the team to beat in Milton’s region, with West Forsyth and Lambert also
figuring in the battle for a playoff spot along with North Forsyth.

The Roswell Hornets will face off against the Milton Eagles at home at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 29.

Image via Shutterstock