Milford's Charlie Urda had a big TD run on Friday night. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

MILFORD – In some cases, familiarity breeds respect.

Consider the Milford and Souhegan football teams. Going into their showdown Friday night, Spartans coach Keith Jones and Sabers coach Robin Bowkett understood the high improbability of seeing a repeat performance of their dominant season-opening wins.

If any fans were expecting an easy ride, they understood by halftime how different this one would be. With the game scoreless after two quarters, Milford punched in a pair of touchdowns to take a 14-0 lead after three, then had to withstand a Souhegan comeback effort before claiming a 14-6 win.

Running back Caden Zelinski set up the first Milford score midway through the third quarter, breaking loose down the left sideline for 58 yards, setting the Spartans up at the Souhegan 9. Logan Barnhill bulled his way inside the 5 on two carries, leading to Charlie Urda’s pass to Trice Cote for the score.

Kicker Colin Gregg punched through his first of two PATs for a 7-0 Milford lead with 6:13 left in the quarter.

Logan Barnhill picked off a Romy Jain pass and with 4:13 left in the third quarter, Urda broke down the right sideline for 35 yards and the Spartans’ second TD.

“We were very successful defensively,” Jones said. “They found some holes, obviously. Good coaches always do. But I felt like physically we played well, our secondary challenge the balls when they were thrown. We put enough pressure on the quarterback to make him rush a few.”

“We knew they were going to be tough, we knew it was going to be a one-score type game,” Bowkett said. “They did a great job taking away what we wanted to do. They forced us into taking what they were giving us.”

Jain, Souhegan’s freshman quarterback, proceeded to take enough to spark the Sabers despite a 14-0 deficit leading into the fourth quarter. A 12-yard pass to Charlie Maroun, a 38-yard pass to Cole Manning and 25-yard pass play to Grant Harris set the stage for Jain’s 1-yard keeper to make it 14-6 with 8:16 left.

The Spartans’ defense smothered a two-point conversion attempt.

Milford overcame a scare when Zelinski went down with a calf cramp, but Barnhill stepped up to bear much of the call-carrying burden.

The Sabers began mounting another drive with a little more than 2 minutes remaining, moving into Milford territory on Jain’s pass to Mitch Hauser good for 38 yards. The Spartans ended that opportunity when Michael Lima intercepted a pass.

“We just kept telling them, when it was 14-0 they easily could have punched another one in and it would’ve been see you later,” Bowkett said. “But we dug down deep and kept swinging, I’m really proud of them for that. We learned something about our team tonight in a positive way.”

“It was good to see kids face some adversity and do some good things,” Jones said. “Everyone contributed tonight.”

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