MILFORD — When you face a team that is undefeated this late into the football season, you know that it will take a perfect game to pull off the upset.

Thus, for Milford head coach Keith Jones on Friday night, he knew it was going to take a big effort from his Spartans to upset the 5-0 Pelham Pythons. Unfortunately for Jones, his team could not capitalize on the few mistakes Pelham made, losing 49-7.

Jones couldn’t have asked for a better opening kickoff as his special team unit recovered the onside kick to start the game. Facing one of the best defensive lines in the state, Milford opted to spread the ball out and rely on its passing game. The strategy did not work early on as Milford quarterback Harris Jones began the game 0-for-9 passing.

Milford caught another break thanks to a bad snap during Pelham’s second drive that was recovered by Milford’s Cade Cloutier. The Spartan offense once again could not come through.

“We certainly had some opportunities,” Jones said. “We had the onside kick to start the game that was huge. But we didn’t capitalize at times. When you play these guys, you got to have zero mistakes.

The Pythons, now on a 36-game winning streak, were led by their two running backs Jake Ciulla and Domenic Paranelli. Each ran for over 100 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Ciulla led the team with 141 yards and Paranelli had 109.

“I thought we played okay defensively. I thought we gave up too many big plays on the counter,” said Jones.

Down 21-0 midway through the second quarter, the Spartan offense finally found some magic. After forcing a turnover on downs, Jones found receiver Colton Tewksbury wide open past the defense for a 53-yard touchdown pass. It was the first points Pelham had given up all year.

Jones began the next Spartan drive with a 35-yard pass to Cloutier that got them into Python territory. The Pythons took a quick timeout to regroup and the Spartan offense was halted to a stop. Jones threw three straight incompletions and Pelham took control had carried a 29-7 lead into halftime.

Jones finished the game completing three passes for 97 yards.

Pelham took advantage of Milford snap miscues and scored twice in the third quarter to go up 42-7 and force the running clock.

Milford, now 2-5 and facing a very steep climb to have a playoff chance, will face Hillsboro-Deering-Hopkinton next week in its Division II finale before closing out the season with a non-league contest against Division I Nashua North.

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