Colquitt falls short at Milton, 39-37

Published 12:31 am Saturday, November 25, 2023

MOULTRIE — During the 2023 season, Colquitt County has been able to overcome several third-quarter “lulls,” as coach Sean Calhoun characterized them, including one last week in a second-round playoff victory over Westlake.

But the Packers could not get past a scoreless third quarter against Milton on Friday and it cost them dearly in a 39-37 quarterfinal loss to the Eagles.

The Packers finish 12-1, falling one win short of qualifying for the second-straight year for the Class 7A semifinals.

It will be Milton that advances to play at Grayson in one semifinal next Friday.

Leading 25-22 at the half, the Packers could not find a way to hem up Milton quarterback Luke Nickel, who threw touchdown passes to Tristen Payne and CJ Wiley to give the Eagles a 36-25 lead they took into the final quarter.

The Packers never caught the Eagles in the final 12 minutes, but did score twice on touchdown passes from Neko Fann to Landen Thomas and Ny Carr.

But the Packers went for two after both and converted neither.

The final Packers score came when a 15-yard Fann-to-Carr scoring pass with 3:52 remaining pulled Colquitt to within two at 39-37.

Fann nearly tied the game, but his run came up just short of the goal line.

The Packers had one more possession, taking over on their own 16 with 1:05 remaining, but Fann’s last pass as a Packer, while complete, came far short as time expired.

The Packers have gone 25-2 over the last two seasons.

“They’ve given us a lot of great memories,” Calhoun said of his team. “They have laid a great foundation for us.”

Nickel, a junior who has committed to Miami, completed 20-of-34 passes for 302 yards and four touchdowns and ran for the other Milton score.

His 16 carries for 117 yards were more than the Packers could overcome.

His work on Milton’s final drive of the second quarter and first drive of the third proved decisive.

After Fann had thrown a 50-yard touchdown pass to Zay Williams to put the Packers up 25-14 with 4:17 left in the half, Nickel drove the Eagles to the Colquitt 5 and scored himself from there with 42 seconds remaining.

He even threw a 2-point completion pass to Tristen Payne to pull the Eagles to within three points.

Milton got possession first in the second half and after making one first down, appeared to stall at its 26 and sent Noah Weiser back in punt formation.

But the snap went to the up-back, AJ Benton, who rambled 11 yards for a first down to keep the drive alive.

Five plays later, Nickel completed a 29-yard touchdown pass to Payne and Milton had its first lead of the game at 29-25.

It was his third touchdown pass of the game, but he had another up his sleeve.

After Fann’s first pass of the second half was intercepted by Benton, it only took the Eagles two plays to score again, this time on a 28-yard pass from Nickel to Wiley.

The 22 straight points put Milton up 36-25.

The Packers punted away their next possession and later put the dreary third quarter behind them by getting a touchdown pass from Fann to Landen Thomas on the second play of the fourth quarter.

A two-point conversion pass failed, but the Packers had pulled to within five with 11:49 left.

Milton then drove to the Packers 4, but facing fourth down, elected to go for a 21-yard field goal, which Alex Nover converted and the Eagles extended their lead to 39-31 with 9:36 left.

The Packer got a defensive stop with 5:38 left in the game and took over on the Milton 45 with 5:48 left.

A personal foul call on Milton when Carr was attempting a third-down catch gave the Packers a first down on the Milton 20.

Three plays later Fann hit Carr on the skinny post and Colquitt had pulled to within two with 3:52 left.

Fann rolled to his right on the 2-point conversion attempt, then turned it up and tried to punch it in.

He came up less than a yard short.

Colquitt could not manage a first down on its final possession of the season.

The Packers scored quickly in the game, needing only 42 seconds to get a 5-yard touchdown run from Day’Shawn Brown and a 2-point conversion pass from Williams to Carr to go up 8-0.

The first Fann-to-Thomas touchdown pass, with 3:38 left in the first quarter, gave the Packers 15-7 lead after the first quarter.

Colquitt had a chance to build a bigger lead early in the game, getting interceptions from Jah’Boris Fuller and Trenton Dunbar in the first quarter.

But the Packers had just a 29-yard Brett Fitzgerald field goal to show for the two takeaways.

Fann, Carr and Thomas all turned in outstanding performances in their final game as Packers.

Fann threw four touchdown passes in a game for the 11th time in his career and added to his school career touchdown pass record and will graduate with 97.

Carr’s touchdown pass reception was the 44th of his career.

Thomas will head to Florida State having caught 22 touchdown passes as a Packer.

Grayson , Milton’s opponent in the semifinals, advanced with a 19-14 win over Buford.

Walton defeated Carrollton 56-35 and will play host to Camden County, the surprise team of the playoffs.

The No. 3 team from Region 1, the Wildcats defeated defending state champion Mill Creek on Friday 39-20 to reach the final four.