Each team had a quarterback named Miles at the high school football game in Newburyport Friday night.
And you didn’t need a scorecard to tell them apart.
Bedford High School senior Eric Miles ran for 266 yards, passed for another 92, scored four rushing touchdowns, and threw for another.
All gallery images by Orna Miles (c) 2022 all rights reserved ~ Click each to see it at full size
Meanwhile, Newburyport junior Sean Miles was also on the run – from a relentless Bedford pass rush. Statistically, he carried the ball 11 times – set plays, scrambles, dropbacks – and absorbed eight sacks, finishing with 19 negative yards. “He was influenced by the rush – – a guy in blue in your face always makes a difference when throwing,” said BHS Head Coach Tim Tone.
The final score was 34-15, as the Bucs raced to an early lead and responded to a couple of flukey plays that made the game close for a little while.
Bedford, 1-1, goes back on the road for the third straight week next Friday for one of the tougher games on the schedule, at Middlesex League powerhouse Woburn
“Our defensive line really dominated the game,” said Tone. “They had some passing yardage, but if you can eliminate the real big plays in the passing game you can live with that.”
Bedford’s dominance was pretty much total, beginning with the first play, when Jayvon Williams fielded the kickoff and handed it off to Ricardo Laboy on a reverse. Newburyport finally caught him at the Clipper 31. “It was an excellent kickoff return,” said Tone. “When your first play is near the 30, that’s always pretty sweet.”
It took about a minute to score from there: Eric Miles rolled right and kept running for 15, and two plays later – and an offside on the defense – he blasted off right tackle and into the endzone.
Newburyport took the kickoff to its 37, and Sean Miles completed a nine-yard pass on the first play. But after an incomplete pass, he called a quarterback keeper, and Jamie Buchannan led the defensive charge for a four-yard loss.
After the punt, Bedford embarked on a 13-play, 74-yard scoring drive that took seven minutes and 20 seconds. “The long drives give you the feel of control of the game,” Tone observed. Miles connected on four rollout passes to Williams and Laboy, which made him extremely dangerous, as the Newburyport defense had to worry about his arm and his legs. Miles finished the drive by driving behind his big offensive line from the four-yard line.
Beginning the next possession at their 13, the Bucs were called for a false start. On second down, Miles took the snap in the shotgun, dashed to his right, faked a throw, and then exploded into the secondary, juking the one Clipper who possibly could have slowed him. The 92-yard run made it 21-0 with six minutes to play in the second quarter.
Newburyport connected on a 24-yard field goal later in the half. The Clippers finally reached the endzone on a fourth-down pass after opening the third quarter with a 51-yard pass play when the receiver dropped the ball but it was caught by a teammate. The Bucs blocked the extra point.
Eric Miles responded with a 51-yard run on second down. But two plays later, with Miles crossing the Newburyport 21 and fighting for extra yards, a Clipper punched out the ball and Ryan Miles (yes, another one) caught the fumble in the air and ran 82 yards for the touchdown.
Suddenly the lead was only 21-15, with a quarter-and-a-half to play.
Bedford reasserted control with an 87-yard scoring drive: 16 plays that took seven minutes. Eric Miles carried eight times, and as the defense keyed more and more in him, he dropped back and fired a dart to Laboy streaking alone down the middle of the field for a 23-yard scoring play.
“In hindsight, it’s kind of nice to see that when it got tight, we reasserted ourselves,” the coach said.
And for dessert, the Bucs added their fifth touchdown just seconds later. On first down from his 33, Sean Milkes dropped back, but Buchannan was right in his face, and the eventual strip-sack was recovered at the two-yard line by Ryan Cohen. Miles powered it over the goal line from the two, and Nick Tatarczuk blasted his fourth point-after-touchdown.
Tatarczuk was unable to play in the team’s opener a week earlier, and Tone said it was great having the senior contribute in all phases of the game – “I don’t think he ever comes off the field.”
Senior running back Aaron Kreiter was helped off the field in the fourth quarter after suffering an ankle injury as he was tackled. Tone said Saturday there’s no break but still a lot of swelling.
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