Urda, big fourth quarter lift Milford to win over St. Thomas

DOVER - Gavin Urda played like he was cheat code to a video game, and the Milford High School quarterback left the St. Thomas Aquinas High School football team with no chance of stopping him.

The senior authored a signature night to his career on Saturday, by dissecting the Saints to the tune of 247 yards on 18 carries and six total touchdowns in undefeated Milford’s crazy 63-42 Division II victory over the Saints. Urda rushed for five touchdowns and added a punt return for a score.

“We’re all pretty beat up after that one. We battled for four quarters, but when it came down to it, we got the job done,” Urda said. “We had good blocking (Saturday). I was just reading the guy, made decisions based on blocking, and it all worked out. We’ve been running this offense with the same core guys since last year, so it’s really starting to heat up.”

Urda guided the rushing assault, but Milford’s deception-based running game provided him plenty of support to the tune of 517 yards. Sean Hanrahan ran for 87 yards on 13 carries with two scores, and Caden Zalenski had a 44-yard touchdown run in the second quarter that was part of his 86-yard night. Emmnuel Ughu added 77 yards on 13 carries.

“He’s a magician. He’s one of the greatest kids on the world, soft-spoken, barely speaks and never says anything about himself,” Milford coach Keith Jones said. “He’s just a player. He’s a sponge to what we do, and he’s got that extra twitch to make a quick decision.”

Urda had touchdown runs of 31 and 6 yards in the first half, but St. Thomas (2-2) hung with Milford (4-0). St. Thomas junior quarterback Cam Paquette completed 9 of 10 passes in the first half for 108 yards, with touchdown passes of 16 yards to Adam Stewart and 2 yards to Stone Compton. Will MacLean added a 75-yard kickoff return late in the second quarter to send St. Thomas into halftime tied at 21-21.

After St. Thomas opened the second half with a 12-play, 72 yard drive that culminated with a 1-yard touchdown run by Hunter Lassard (17 carries, 96 yards), Urda immediately responded by taking the first play on the ensuing 58 yards into the end zone to tie the game at 28-28 with 9:21 left in the third quarter.

Milford forced a pair of three-and-outs, and Urda continued to haunt St. Thomas as a punt returner. Urda took the punt and blazed his way to a 74-yard touchdown to give the Spartans a 34-28 lead with 3:35 left in the third.

“I love that coach has confidence to put us all out in any situation,” Urda said. ‘I want to do anything that helps the team.”

St. Thomas countered with a short drive that ended with a 31-yard touchdown run by Lassard that gave the Saints a 35-34 lead entering the fourth.

Urda scored from 9 yards out and found Hanrahan on a two-point conversion pass early in the fourth to take the lead, but Paquette ended an eight-play drive with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Stewart to tie the game at 42-42 with 8:56 left in regulation. Paquette completed 22 of 40 passes on the night for 230 yards and three touchdowns.

Unfortunately, St. Thomas fell victim to Urda’s puppetry one more time, when he raced 59 yards into the end zone on the second play of the ensuing drive to give Milford a 49-42 lead with 8:02 left in the fourth.

“We went and watched the Queen City Jamboree, me and three other coaches. (Urda) kept the ball twice and I was like ‘Alright boys, we’ve got our work cut out for us,'” St. Thomas coach Dave Bryant said. “You try to run a scout team of that during the week, and when you don’t run that as an offense, it's very hard to execute. Everybody has to be crystal clear on their reads. Even when you play it right, he sets his runs up right.”

In a night devoid of many defensive plays, Hanrahan came up with the biggest play on St. Thomas’ next drive when he intercepted Paquette at St. Thomas’s 40. Hanrahan would then finish the drive with a 27-yard touchdown run, and he closed the game’s scoring with a 4-yard run late in regulation to cap off a 29-7 fourth quarter for the Spartans.

“Coach just said ‘Who is going out there and making a play?'" Hanrahan said. “I just went out there, played the ball, and made a good play.”

Milford’s win was the polar opposite of last week’s 14-13, overtime win over Pelham. The Spartans look to remain undefeated at home next Friday in a big home game against rival Souhegan (3-1) on Friday. St, Thomas travels to three-time defending Division II champion Plymouth (2-2) next Saturday.

“We’re feeling pretty good right now,” Jones said. “Anytime you can come out of St. Thomas with a win, it’s a good thing.”