Milligan, offense should make Canon-McMillan exciting
The advantages of a talented defense aside – defense wins championships, right? – it’s high-scoring offenses that put the fun and excitement into Friday night high school football. At Canon-McMillan, the fun, excitement and points on the Big Macs’ side of the scoreboard have been lacking in too many seasons.
The wins and points were scarce even at the outset of last season. Then, some interesting things happened around the middle of the year. Running back Bryan Milligan made his way into the starting lineup and began shattering school records. A young and inexperienced offense line started opening holes. The Big Macs began playing exciting football.
And they won a few games.
Canon-McMillan’s players started to see their hard work paying dividends. The light at the end of the tunnel was getting brighter.
Canon-McMillan won two of its last three games while averaging 39 points per game. The lone loss was a 41-40 setback against Blackhawk.
If nothing else, the Big Macs became exciting under head coach Mike Evans, who is entering his second year at C-M.
“We taught our system and the players didn’t expect much because in the scrimmages, it didn’t work,” Evans recalled. “It took time to build with the kids. It was their third offense in three years.”
By the end of the season, the Big Macs were hard to stop, and it was Milligan leading the way. Now a 5-9, 195-pound senior, Milligan tore through the C-M record book, rushing for a school record 1,628 yards and scoring 17 touchdowns. He was sixth in the WPIAL in rushing and tops among all Class AAAA runners.
“I didn’t expect that,” Milligan admitted. “Our line was inexperienced and we had a new coaching staff. When we beat Baldwin (28-14), there were some plays where I didn’t even get touched. That was when I knew we had a solid line and things were changing.”
Milligan rushed for 989 yards over the final four games, including a school-record 322 yards against Baldwin.
“Bryan Milligan is a good running back, but there was an inexperienced line in front of him doing a decent job, a QB getting some things done and running back going for 1,600 yards,” Evans said. “The kids were going, ‘Wow, this is real.’ I think they had one 100-yard rusher in the previous two years.”
Milligan’s emergence gives the Big Macs, who finished 3-7 a year ago, a gamebreaker, a running back with 4.6 speed in the 40-yard dash who can take the offense beyond ordinary.
“He’s a kid who has learned to run the outside zone play, which is what we specialize in,” Evans said. “He is very good at setting up his blocks. He probably had eight or nine runs or 40 yards or more and has a nose for the end zone. He’s physical, fast and never misses practices.”
Milligan will have experienced linemen to run behind. Returning at tackle are Aaron Smith and R.J. Dami along with center-guard Joey Colosimo. There’s also powerful guard Nathaniel Taylor, who squats almost 500 pounds.
The Big Macs lost quarterback Dom Eannace to graduation, but Evans likes the potential of Jordan Castelli. He has battle-tested receivers as junior Greyden Piechnick along with seniors Doug Kotar and Rahmiere Knight return.
The trouble spot for Canon-Mac has been its defense. The Big Macs gave up an average of 37.7 points per game, and that included a shutout win over Fox Chapel. Too often, the C-M defense was yielding points as rapidly as an arena league team.
“It was tackling,” Evans said. “If you watched our first few games, we had good defensive effort. There were two or three guys at every play, but we just weren’t tackling. That’s a function of the weight room and we were able to address that. There also were breakdowns and a confidence issue. As we were going up on offense, we were adrift defensively. We did play five solid games defensively, but the five we didn’t play solidly were out of control.”
The Big Macs return four defensive starters, led by senior nose tackle Austin Robl and senior linebacker Colton Blodgett. Kotar and Milligan return in the secondary. Evans praised Piechnick’s play at safety and added that cornerback Alonzo Lemus is back at cornerback after sitting out last season.
“The defense has to get better,” Blodgett said.
Several sophomores will be counted on to play more than casual roles on defense.
“We have an outstanding sophomore class,” Evans said. “There are eight to 10 guys who could eventually play college football.”
The statewide move to six classifications has Canon-McMillan in the Class 6-A Southeastern Conference with holdovers Peters Township, Bethel Park and Mt. Lebanon. New to the conference are Altoona, Hempfield and Norwin.
“I saw a difference in the attitude last year; what I see this year is confidence,” Evans said.