By John Breech / STAFF

The smile on the face of Roswell head football coach Leo Barker said it all. After a tumultuous first season last year that saw the Hornets go 5-5 and miss the playoffs for the first time since 2002, Barker found the Roswell fan base getting a little antsy. However, thanks to Friday’s 34-14 win over Milton, the playoff drought is only going to last one season.

Barker and his high flying unbeaten Hornets officially clinched a region 6-AAAAA playoff berth with the win over their biggest rivals. “It feels great,” Barker said of clinching the playoff berth. “It feels really great.”

Running back Duvall Smith proved be the star of the game for Roswell as he rushed for 180 yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries. Smith set the offensive tone for Roswell with a 41-yard touchdown run on the fifth play of the game. The long run gave the Hornets a 7-0 lead they wouldn’t relinquish. “[Sumler] was hurt, so that was huge for [Duvall] to perform like that,” Barker said. “He stepped up big tonight. He stepped up really big and we needed that.”

After Smith’s touchdown, the Roswell defense forced a Milton three-and-out. The Eagles Joey Colucci only got off a 30-yard punt and the Hornet offense took over in Milton territory. Roswell’s offense turned the good field position into three points when kicker Richie Leone split the uprights from 40-yards.

With Roswell up 10-0 and the game only six minutes old, it looked like the rout was on; until Will Perry hooked up with Dai Jon Parker that is. On Milton’s first offensive play following Leone’s field goal, Parker made an acrobatic one-handed catch of a Perry pass that he turned into an 80-yard touchdown.

It looked like 10-7 was going to be the halftime score. However, Roswell was able to capitalize on a Milton mistake late in the second quarter that helped the Hornets extend their lead. With 1:31 to go until halftime, Milton was getting set to punt. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the snap went over Colucci’s head and Roswell ended up taking over on Milton’s 43-yard line. Eagle coach Scott Walker says mistakes like that kept his team from keeping it close, “Our inexperience showed in some areas and we made some stupid mistakes.”

Two Brian Hickman (7-for-14, 104 yards) passes to Brett Beidel (6 catches, 93, yards, 1 touchdown) got the Hornets down to the Milton 10. Smith then scored his second touchdown of the night on a 10-yard jaunt with 31 seconds until halftime.

A second quarter interception by Roswell’s Rashad Hoyle proved to be a big play in the game. Milton was only 7-yards away from scoring what would have been a go-ahead touchdown.

The second half was all Hornets. Roswell only had the ball four times in the half, but they made the most of each possession by scoring three times and only punting once. The first score came on a 41-yard field goal by Leone, who also had a 72-yard punt in the game. The second score was a 9-yard touchdown pass from J.P. Douglas to Beidel and the final score with 18 seconds left when Smith went 19 yards for a touchdown.

Perry would score on a 9-yard bootleg run in the third quarter that made it 20-14, but after that, Milton didn’t cross into Roswell territory for the rest of the game.

The Eagles may be on a three game losing streak, but Walker knows that his team controls their own destiny, “If we want to get in the playoffs, we have to take care of Pope next week and then we would play Kell to see if we’re in or not.”

As for Roswell, the Hornets only need one win in their final two games to clinch a first round home game. “We have Walton, and that’s always a fun one,” the second year coach said of Roswell’s next opponent. “It’s time to go get them Raiders.”