Adrian (6-4) is coming off of a 27-20 overtime victory over Grosse Ile while Milan (9-1) beat Monroe Jefferson 27-22 last week. These two teams met in week one with Milan winning 27-13.
The Maples surprised 8-1 Grosse Ile last week with a diverse offense and a quick defense. Adrian has a solid core of seniors that is led offensively by QB Tyler Shephard. Freshman Antwan Ficklin Jr. has proven to be an impact player.
Milan faced a stiff test against Jefferson last week. The Big Red stars made their presence felt as senior Demetrius Barnes and Trace Lindeman had big games along with freshman defensive phenom Tristen Hines.
This should be a great game. I caught the 2nd half of the first game earlier this season. The is a favorable matchup for both teams and is most likely a pick’em game. Pick: Milan 28 Adrian 26
Gary’s Pick: Milan 28 Adrian 21
FR parent Good Luck Milan
Good luck Milan.
Best of luck Milan! Our Bear family will be in the stands cheering you on!!
Agreed. Let's pack the place tonight!
Good luck Big Reds!
Hope to see a big crowd tonight. Milan will play their tales off, they want it pretty bad. Hope it's injury free and a great game. Good luck to Adrian.
See ya at the game!
FWIW, Mick McCabe lists Milan as his Division 4 Dark Horse team:
http://usatodayhss.com/2016/high-school-football-upset-watches-dark-horses-in-district-finals
"Dark horse: Milan. The Big Reds have a dual threat in QB Demetrius Barnes and Trace Lindeman helps with a solid running attack. They can match speed with any team in the division"
The info itself is nothing groundbreaking to us–more of an introduction to Milan to those elsewhere–but it's nice to see Milan mentioned in the big papers once in a while.
There I go, trying to sound smart again.
The fact that you guys have made the playoffs consistently and do win some of them is something to be very proud of. Many of us are not able to do that. I would be very proud of that fact. The earlier commenter who downplayed that fact and made it seem average may not know how tough it is.
The higher the playoff division, the chances of making it far increase drastically.
So making it a few rounds into the playoffs, being from down here in our neck of the woods is something to be proud of. The Country Days, The Crockets, Orchard Lake St marys , whatever, have a much bigger athletic base and attract kids that we could never get down here. SMCC did well in there playoff runs, but in the upper divisions they would not have made it either.
Good Luck Big Reds!! Represent the league well and kick some ass.
Jefferson Bears
Classy! Thank you!!
-Milan fan
Gary, I know that in the end you and I are saying similar things. Rematches are often closer than the original matchup. The 2012 Milan-Airport games are a great example of this. I remember that second game, especially, as it was absolutely frigid.
It sounds like I may have misinterpreted your earlier words:
"Rematches such as this, more times than not, have a different outcome than the first affair. My gut says pick the fiesty Bears but I am going with the Champs at home. They are the champs for a reason."
"Don't be so sure. Rematches, more often than one would think, go to the previous loser."
In my mind, I must have processed your two statements together to mean that in over 50% of rematches, the result of the contest is flipped from the result of the earlier game. To be fair, though, I wasn't the only one at the time to read your commentary this way.
The complete opposite has happened just as many times, Gary. Who knows what will happen but don't try to sound too smart. You sound like Chris talking about his Chiefs
But you would think the opposite would happen is my point.
Can anyone really remember who won or lost in each district last year, other than the state champs? Next year, no one will remember this year either. Just enjoy the ride, and create some lasting memories for the kids.
2012- Milan beat Airport 41-0, 2 weeks later in the playoffs, Milan beat Airport 14-7.
Just one example, but it took me 20 seconds to find.
In this game's case, I would be a little surprised if the margin of victory for Milan is more than the previous, 14.
As a long distance Milan fan, I enjoy reading this blog. And it has been great to see Milan's recent success under Coach Hoskins.
With today's declining traditional newspaper coverage and Milan's location between Monroe and AA, the Big Reds often feel left out.
I wish the Big Reds the best this weekend, as from all accounts next week vs. RR could be ugly.
As for not much hype around this second round matchup, I think it is two-fold. One the Huron League does not showcase exciting football and Milan never beats real good teams, and therefore most people understand they will win 1 to 2 playoff games vs average area teams and then get beat once they face a legit team.
The Huron League's perception around the state for being an average football league at best is justified. t is an average Class B league with a Class C state power. Other than SMCC and occasionally GI, and out of nowhere NB Huron with a semi-final appearance, what other school has made decent playoff run in the last 20 yrs.
When is the last time Milan has beaten a real good team, a team with legitimate title hopes? Milan's wins over SMCC have been in years that SMCC hasn't made a playoff run. You have to go back to Coach Hoskins senior year in HS to see the last time Milan beat a state champion caliber team, and that season the Big Reds defeated two, Detroit Country Day and Detroit Crockett and lost to state champion JLC.
Milan football is important to many people including myself, and the facts are the facts. To us, this is a big game and very exciting for the community.
We have good athletes year after year, its always like that. We have a good staff, that puts in time and effort for these young men. We couldn't ask for much more and with this coaching staff, I'd expect us to make the playoffs on a consistent basis.
Any chance Rouge loses this week?
I don't know if Rouge will lose this year. They are an awesome team.
I said more often than one would think, the rematch is closer or flipped. I did not say it tends to happen more often than the first winner winning.
I've seen many many times. Team A beats team B by 30, then in the rematch it's much closer and more often than one would think team B wins.
Best of luck to Milan! Just WIN Baby!!!
IMHO, the lack of hype for this week's game actually stems back to last week's non-reporting of any details from the GI-Adrian game. Sure, we heard a few peeps from those who wanted to remind us all that GI were league co-champs, and there was a nice post from someone called GI Infrequent Poster, but we didn't get anything about the game itself that propelled the conversation into this week.
Jefferson v. Milan got a nice amount of pregame banter last week. Even though the two teams had already played earlier in the season, a case could be made that an upset was possible based on past results of Milan having trouble stopping an interior power run game.
This week's game is another rematch. I'm sure Adrian is playing better than they were in Week 1, and I'm certain that their confidence is through the roof following their first win over a team with a winning record. Yet, this week's game doesn't present that clash of styles that I always find interesting. Adrian's spread is more of a balanced spread, able to run or pass. Milan's spread is run-heavy, but they have shown more balance these last two weeks than earlier in the season. Milan's pass defense was up for the challenge in Week 1. Has Adrian's D improved since then?
Adrian's not a state power like Rouge, so even the Anyone-But-Milan crowd is staying away this week. They don't appear to have D1 recruiting buzz for any of their players. There's low information and low expectations for the Maples, hardly a great formula for game week hype.
I don't subscribe to Gary's notion that the outcome tends to be flipped in rematches, but I do think the game could be tighter, certainly. Milan can be very tough when winning the first quarter and making their opponents play catch up the rest of the game.
"Our JV team could give Adrian a good run" – AP Fan
"Adrian isn't even deserving to be here because they had only 5 wins" – Milan Fan
There is no hype because you are the only team left from the league. That is great and all, but nobody else from the league is going to get on here very much at this point. Don't cry about it. It is what it is.
The heart of the league is around Monroe. Milan is 20 miles from the next nearest Huron League school, you are somewhat an outsider. Who cares. Have fun while you can, don't worry about whether the rest of us are on board or not.
Your statement is true. Milan folk have been saying this for awhile. It's not that we want or need the rest of the league support, but what we earned we still don't get, and that's respect. Milan will never be a cup cake win for any team. Your statement is exactly what we think the rest of the league thinks about Milan. It's all good though.
Nobody likes the "outsider bully" Milan. You kick our ass and then retreat back to Milan. Shame on you!!
– The rest of the league
FWIW, for those looking for additional Adrian players who will likely factor into tomorrow's game, you can find the SEC White Division All-League team (why isn't it an All-Division team?) here:
http://www.lenconnect.com/sports/20161102/maples-indians-football-players-named-to-all-sec
FWIW, MLive's prediction and preview
Prediction:
"Milan 28, Adrian 20
On paper, the Big Reds appear to be heavy favorites with a superior record and having won the first meeting this season by two scores. However, the Maples, making their first playoff appearance since 2011, knocked off 8-2 Grosse Ile last week.
Quarterback Demetrius Barnes and running back Trace Lindeman will need to carry Milan once again for their second straight district title."
Preview (with a little more info and some quotes by Hoskins):
http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/news/article/1964523469638800090/milan-aims-to-make-school-history-against-adrian-in-district-final
SMCC and Jefferson are done, so Chris and Gary's heart just isn't in to Milan. Ha ha
You must not have read my Ida preview, 12:02.
Man you guys are rough.
Very excited to watch this game. We need to be dominant at the line of scrimmage and force bad decisions for their QB. If we can run the ball, we win. Milan has a chance to make history, they have never won back to back district titles. I had a gut feeling about Adrian. They were a tough team 10 weeks ago and have got a lot better since. Last week just goes to show that teams that can run the ball can be dominant. Jefferson was solid.
We dont have to listen to the CC folks this year, so I'm glad milan has picked up their crying towel.
Give it a break !
"But they didn't say enough good things about us"
"I want an Oompa Loompa now Daddy !"
Unreal
This is going to be a very tough game, just like last week. Im hoping Milan wins. I want to see them against a team they haven't played. See what they have vs Rouge at home.
My write ups involve a little more hype than Chris. I had been doing the Milan games up until this week. That's just my writing style. Chris is more fact based and less fluff. Im full of fluff haha.
We are happy, just normally there is more hype, stuff like that. This was kinda bla, prediction is fine.
Not sure what can be added about Milan that wasn't said last week or the week before. They are a good team and I hope they win. And win. This was the 2nd time we covered Ida. There were more new things to uncover. Plus I had just went to their game last week.
I have more time on my hands than Chris does at the moment. I was on a mini vacation. My write-up might be a little more in depth but Chris covered all the stars and gave you his thoughts and predictions. Be happy. Go Big Reds!
It is upset time on the old ranch. The Maples turn into an old tough Hickory come about 7pm. Adrian by 3.
That is because Gary has written 5 or 6 articles all year and not 200. LOL I suppose I could write more, but not really sure what I would say. Pretty sure I have been fair to Milan all year. Not too worried about Adrian. I guess a free service isn't enough for people these days. Maybe, I'll get crazy and break down tonight on the podcast. Depends how my day goes. 🙂
Don't care about margin of victory, just the win.
I told you that Milan fans would be upset about the article (10:16). NO RESPECT.
Really just more of a prediction than anything Rob.
What Rob is saying is there is not a lot said about either team. More was wrote on Ida and their match up. Mlive does not cover Milan well, neither does monroe news.
This should be a high scoring wide open game. Both teams like to play in space with some good athletes. First time they met, both teams were trying to find their way. This time, both teams seem to be firing on all cylinders. Prediction: Milan 42 Adrian 33
Shortest preview I've ever read for a District Championship. Good luck Adrian.
That's because it's Milan dude.
Should be a fun game to watch. The better team will win on Friday night. No excuses!
Go Big Reds! See everyone on Friday night. It could be a classic.
Why so much hate for milan. Only having them win by 1 touchdown and the other by 2 points. You guys just really don't like us on this blog.
-Things Milan fans will say-