The Milford Bucs football team played in a fog for much of the first part of the Nov. 7 game against Lake Forest – both figuratively and literally.

But as the fog began to lift in the fourth quarter, the Bucs began playing better, and put the game out of reach by scoring two touchdowns and forcing and recovering a fumble with less than 2 minutes remaining in the game.

The 27-14 victory was the third-straight Battle of the Bell win for the Bucs, sealed a Henlopen Conference Southern Division title and ended Milford’s 34-year state tournament playoff drought.

“It’s awesome,” senior Devon Sivels said. “I can’t even explain it...it’s been 34 years.”

“This is one of the best feelings I’ve ever had in my entire life,” senior Alex Bell said.

The Bucs finished the season 8-2, which is tied with Laurel for the top spot in the Henlopen South, but Milford holds the tiebreaker by having beaten the Bulldogs 27-7 earlier this season. The Henlopen South champion gets an automatic berth in the Division II state tournament.

“It feels wonderful,” Milford head coach Mike Tkach said. “It’s a great accomplishment for the kids. They worked hard all year long.”

Milford started off sluggish against the Spartans, failing to score until 2:05 remaining in the first half. That’s when sophomore Jerrell Allen picked up a Lake Forest punt on the 4 yard line, and ran it back 96 yards for the touchdown.

But the Spartans tied the score at 7-7 on their first drive of the second half, capping off the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run.

Milford senior Chris Drummond put the Bucs up 14-7 with 1:49 remaining in the third quarter off his own 3-yard touchdown run. At that point in the game, both teams were battling poor visibility due to heavy fog that had rolled across the field.

The Spartans started the fourth quarter by recovering a Milford fumble, then gambling on fourth down of the ensuing drive by going for it with 10:05 remaining in the game. Lake Forest converted on fourth down, and eventually scored to tie the game at 14-14.

“I think that’s when it hit us, that we might actually lose,” Bell said. “Everything just seemed to slow down, and we knew we had to win.”

With approximately 8 minutes remaining in the game and the Bucs driving, the fog began to lift. That was apparently what Milford was looking for, as Drummond scored his second touchdown of the game with 7:08 remaining to give the Bucs a 21-14 lead, and fire up a raucous Milford crowd.

After stopping Lake Forest’s ensuing drive, junior Brandon LeGrand slammed the door on the Spartans’ hopes by scoring a 77-yard touchdown with 2:42 remaining in the game.

And junior Hunter Whalen sealed the win by recovering a Spartans fumble with 1:46 remaining.

“Give credit to Lake Forest,” Tkach said. “They came to play. They played a good strong game. It was exciting, and we are just thankful we came out with the win.

“It was really a great night for Milford football, the school and the community.”

Offensively, LeGrand led Milford with 207 yards rushing and a touchdown on 17 carries, while Drummond finished with 38 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries.

Junior quarterback Marques Jones went 3-for-6 for 35 yards, and Allen was on the receiving end of 30 of those yards.

Junior kicker Ryan Mortimer was 3-for-3 on extra points.

Defensively, Bell led the team with 12 tackles, while Drummond and Kollock had 11 apiece.

Senior Josh Wright had seven tackles and a sack, while junior Joe McIlvain had six tackles.

Now Milford’s focus shifts to competing in the state tournament for the first time since 1974. Tkach said the coaching staff would do everything it can to prepare the players.

“The last couple of weeks teams have done certain things to us,” Tkach said. “So as a coaching staff, we are breaking that down and we’ll correct them.”

Milford will have to do it without senior running back and linebacker RJ Robinson, who broke his ankle in the Lake Forest game and will be unavailable for the state tournament.

“We’ve got to get people to step up and be ready to play,” Tkach said.

And ultimately, the Bucs are looking to make school history.

“This is all new territory for us,” Tkach said. “So we want to enjoy the ride for as long as possible.”