The standout defensive back and his Norcross teammates celebrated mightily after a breakthrough, 45-28 victory at Mill Creek that snapped the Blue Devils’ futility in the series between Gwinnett football powers.
“It means a lot,” Huff said. “We haven’t beat them in five years. It was time to make a change.”
Big plays in the passing game and special teams were the difference-makers as Norcross defeated Mill Creek for the first time since 2020. The Blue Devils had lost four straight straight seasons — and eight of the last nine matchups — to Mill Creek.
Friday’s win brings them to 2-0 under new head coach Corey Richardson, a longtime assistant promoted to head coach in the offseason as a replacement for the legendary Keith Maloof.
“I’m not going to take any win for granted, I’m not. Every win you get is important,” Richardson said. “I’m just so proud of them. You look at tonight. It was a complete team win. It wasn’t just offense and defense. It was special teams. … That’s why you schedule Mill Creek. When you look at a Josh Lovelady-coached football team, they are very well-coached, their players play hard and they play with a lot of energy. To come on the road and a place like Mill Creek and win is big because they’ve had success over us the last little bit. For me, it’s just believing in each other. If we all play together as one Norcross, we’re pretty tough to beat.
“The kids are excited. You think about it, our record (in the Mill Creek series) was 9-8 coming into this but they’ve won four or five in a row. You play a Mill Creek because it prepares you for region and down the road.”
Norcross quarterback P.J. Wolfe completed 10 of 19 passes for 254 yards and four big-play touchdowns — 49- and 31-yard passes to Titus Travis, an 87-yarder to Kendall Edwards and a 34-yarder to Davis Marschke. Travis had three catches for 97 yards as the passing game offset a running game that was held to 41 yards on 28 attempts by the Hawks’ defense.
The big plays also overcame Mill Creek running back Jayde Beasley’s 30 carries for 207 yards and two TDs. He added a pair of catches for 60 yards, accounting for 267 of the Hawks’ 423 yards.
After falling down 21-7 after a quarter and 28-7 later in the first half, Mill Creek fought back with a 5-yard TD pass from Cannon Kiley (133 passing yards) to Julian Alvarez, who made a great catch at the back corner of the end zone before halftime, and a 25-yard interception return for a score by William Backus with 7:39 left in the third quarter that closed the deficit to 28-21.
Richardson had flashbacks from the previous week’s 16-12 win over Lanier when his team led 16-0 in the final two minutes but it had to hold on after a pair of successful Lanier onside kicks. But this time, his team closed much stronger, thanks in large part to Huff’s punt returns.
The senior’s 40-yard punt return set up the 34-yard TD pass from Wolfe to Marschke with 1:40 left in the third quarter. The play came on fourth-and-11 and Mill Creek’s defensive back was running in stride with Marschke before falling down and allowing the score.
Norcross’ defense got a quick three-and-out and Huff reeled off a 59-yard punt return TD on the final play of the third quarter that was a backbreaker for the Hawks, who got behind 42-21 after the flurry.
“That was my first varsity touchdown, so I was happy,” Huff said. “I just saw a hole and I took it.”
Huff had a 52-yard punt return after Mill Creek’s next drive was halted, setting up a 50-yard field goal from Elijah Frey for a 45-21 lead with five minutes left.
“It’s so, so huge,” Richardson said of Huff’s punt return TD. “When I look at last week how it turned, I’m looking at the scoreboard and it’s very close to the same type of situation. The way our kids finished. That was the preaching at halftime, ‘We have to finish.’ And I feel like we did that. Mill Creek plays really well off the momentum. They got the momentum and we got it back and held it until the end.”
Kiley’s 49-yard pass to Beasley set up a 6-yard TD run by Beasley with 3:49 left, but Mill Creek (1-1) got no closer.
Norcross got started quickly in the first quarter when Anthony Allen made a diving interception of a Mill Creek screen pass at the Hawks’ 16-yard line. Five plays later, Josh Burks powered in for a 3-yard TD run and a 7-0 lead.
Wolfe found Edwards wide open for an 87-yard TD with 4:15 left in the first quarter before B... Click here to read full article
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