The Milton Eagles hope to remain in contention for their first region championship since 1952 and just their second in program history when the Eagles play at the Walton Raiders on this week’s Football Fridays in Georgia on GPB. Milton is 5-1 overall and tied with Roswell for first place in the GHSA’s Region 5-AAAAAA at 3-1. The Eagles only loss this season was a 33-31 setback vs. the Hornets over weeks ago.

The season has the potential to be the best in Milton history. The Eagles have won three straight region games by a combined score of 116-12 since that loss to Roswell. In addition to that, Milton defeated two-time defending state champion Norcross 26-0 on GPB the first Friday in September. Even though the Eagles have made back-to-back playoff appearances under fourth year Head Coach Howie DeCristofaro, Milton has never won a state playoff game in ten attempts, dating back to the program’s start in 1950.

In the meantime, it’s been a tough season for the Walton Raiders under first year Head Coach Mo Dixon, the long-time defensive coordinator for Coach Bob Sphire at North Gwinnett. The Raiders were forced to forfeit their first three wins because of an ineligible player and although 5-2 on the field, are officially 2-5 overall and 2-3 in the region. Walton will likely have to win out just to have any hope of making the state playoffs for the 13th time in the last 14 seasons.

While Milton has no real playoff history, the Raiders are quite the opposite. Walton reached the state finals in 2011, have reached the state semi-finals three times and won seven region championships, five coming since 2003.

This will be the 18th all-time meeting since 1992 with Walton leading the series 13-4. In fact, Milton snapped the Raiders’ 13-game winning streak in the series with a 28-21 win last season.

Recruiting Watch – Players to watch for Milton: Four-star Quart’e Sapp, the #23 OLB in the 247 Sports Composite rankings. Sapp has 15 reported offers including Tennessee and Miami and just visited Texas A&M this past weekend. Four-star Nick Wilson who is committed to Stanford and ranked the #21 OG in the nation. Athlete Obe Fortune has six offers including Wake Forest, Minnesota and Iowa State.

Players to watch for Walton include three-star junior quarterback Josh White who has been offered by Mississippi State and junior TE Sam Letton who has offers from Kentucky, Western Kentucky and Toledo.

It will be another great GPB Football Friday in Georgia live from Raider Valley in East Cobb. It all starts at 7:00 p.m. with our GPB All Access Pass show hosted by Mark Harmon and Claire Simms and then join me, former Atlanta Falcons star DE Chuck Smith, Jon Nelson and Grace Olson on the game call starting at 7:30 pm. It’ll be fun. Be sure to tune in.