Milford back Lucas Nuebeck tries to escape during Friday night's game vs. St. Thomas in Milford. (Courtesy photo by Betsy Hansen)

MILFORD – The Milford High School football team (2-5) celebrated its seniors and gave the home fans a competitive half of football, trailing playoff-bound St. Thomas (5-2) by just five at halftime.

But St. Thomas senior running back Kenny Avery ran for 195 yards and four touchdowns on 22 carries, including a 58-yard touchdown in the third quarter, and Saints sophomore quarterback Anthony Semprini (3-for-6, 43 passing yards) threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to senior Breydan Sanchez in the third quarter as St. Thomas pulled away for a 32-14 victory on Friday night.

Avery scored a 13-yard touchdown midway through the first quarter and ran around the edge to the corner of the endzone on a 4-yard run on the first play of the second quarter to give the Saints a 13-0 lead.

Milford sophomore running back Jace Wilhelmi (87 yards on 18 carries) punched the ball up the middle from the 1 to put the Spartans on the board with 6:47 left in the half.

Avery scored from inside the one on the next drive, but Wilhelmi blocked the kick to hold St. Thomas’ lead to 19-7 with 4:35 to go. The Spartans drove 75 yards over the next three and a half minutes, with Wilhelmi going up the middle from the 8.

“We were really grinding them out a little bit,” Milford head coach Max Morelli said. “We were getting great push up front. We were moving bodies and running hard.”

As he also did on the first touchdown, freshman kicker Lucas Neubeck converted the extra point to cut the Saints’ lead to 19-14 with 1:03 left in the half.

St. Thomas successfully recovered the squib kickoff, but Milford’s defense forced two incomplete passes and held Avery to just a 2-yard run, forcing the Saints to punt to end the half.

Momentum was on Milford’s side, scoring just before the half and receiving the ball to open the second. A roughing the passer penalty on St. Thomas gave the Spartans a first down, but Milford lost yards on a fourth-and-3 and turned the ball over on downs.

“I don’t think that we made enough plays in critical times,” Morelli said. “I think that there were some things that we knew were coming that we worked on, that I felt like we worked on. But when the time came in the game, we just didn’t quite make the play.

Semprini’s pass to Sanchez made it 26-14 with 5:09 left in the third and a quick three-and-out by Milford on the following drive gave St. Thomas good field position which Avery immediately exploited. On just the second play of the drive, Avery broke a tackle and took off down the home sideline, juking three Milford defenders near the 10 to reach the end zone.

“The thing I’m more proud of is that we knew (Milford) was going to fight,” St. Thomas head coach Scott Bray said. “We watched them on film. They battle. They play a real tough game of football. They came out and they moved us around in the first half. We went inside (the locker room) before the second half and said ‘Guys, there’s nothing magical on a whiteboard. This all comes down to where you are character-wise.’ So I was really happy with how they responded in the second half.”

St.Thomas back Kenny Avery scored a TD early in the second quarter of Friday night’s Division II clash in Milford. (Photo by Dan Attorri)

Trailing 32-14 with 2:29 left in the third, Hill (5-for-12, 62 passing yards) moved the ball well, picking up three first downs and driving to the St. Thomas 27, but Hill’s pass into the red zone was intercepted by Saints’ junior Ryan Jones in the first minute of the fourth quarter.

“We didn’t do quite enough to have (team) success, but we had a lot of really great individual efforts,” Morrelli said.

In addition to Wilhelmi and Hill, Tessier (96 yards on 10 carries), Bozza (32 receiving yards on two catches, 21 rushing yards on 11 carries) and Neubeck (30 receiving yards on three catches) contributed good games offensively, while senior captain Eli Gutierrez and fellow lineman, sophomore Joseph Schnitzler, had tackles for losses.

Senior captains James Butterfield (lineman), Gutierrez and Bozza, and fellow seniors Tucker Sabotka and Victor McEnnis were recognized pregame.

The seniors still have one more home game left to play in their careers. The Spartans play at ConVal next weekend and host Pelham in their season finale on Oct. 31.

“I love every single one of them,” Morrelli said. “A few of them have been cornerstones for us. As players, but also off the field. Awesome kids.”