Milledgeville takes advantage of field position to roll past Bushnell-Prairie City in first round of 8-man football playoffs

Playing the field position game perfectly Saturday afternoon, the Milledgeville Missiles defeated Bushnell-Prairie City 64-8 in the first round of the 8-man football playoffs at Floyd Daub Field.

Midway through the first quarter, Connor Nye hit Ashton Nobis on a 3-yard touchdown pass, then Nobis ran in from 16 yards out less than three minutes later for a 14-0 lead. Nye added a 2-yard TD run in the final minute for a 22-0 lead through the opening 12 minutes.

“We started off with a nice kickoff that pinned them in their half of the field, then our defense took over and gave us a short field,” Milledgeville coach Jason Wroble said. “That happened the first several series, and we were able to play mostly on their side of the 50. Between our defense and special teams setting up our offense, we were able to punch it in pretty quickly.”

Nye finished with 163 yards and two touchdowns on 7-for-9 passing, and he added 38 yards on the ground. Nobis ran for 53 yards and two scores on just four carries, and Peyton Sarber and Izaac Toms-Smith also had touchdown runs. Nobis also caught four passes for 92 yards and two TDs.

Nye connected for a score with Landon Frederick for a 23-yard touchdown just seven seconds into the second quarter, then Nobis added a 22-yard TD run less than two minutes later. Nye then hit Nobis with a 63-yard scoring strike with 6:30 left before halftime, before Sarber closed out the first-half scoring with an 18-yard TD run with 1:43 left before the break for a 52-0 halftime lead.

Toms-Smith scored on a 1-yard run with 3:23 left in the third quarter to cap the Missiles’ scoring, to the delight of a packed crowd.

“It was such a great atmosphere, and the fans were here early,” Wroble said. “They gave us a nice tunnel for the kids to run through onto the field, and it was definitely fun playing a home playoff game.”

Milledgeville outgained BPC 309-164 in total yards, including 146-51 on the ground.

Next week, the Missiles will hit the road for a second-round game in Amboy against the Clippers, who defeated Aquin 52-28 on Saturday in Freeport. It will be a rematch of the Week 2 game in Milledgeville, a 24-12 Missiles victory. The game will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at The Harbor.

“After the game, the message we gave to the kids is that it’s always hard to beat a good team twice in a season,” Wroble said. “South Beloit proved that by winning Friday night against a team they lost to in the regular season. We just have to make sure we’re focused every day this week, and come ready to play next weekend.

“Amboy has the same record as us now, 1-0 in the playoffs, and our kids know they have speed and size and play quality football. I think it will be pretty easy for us to stay focused this week.”