We Speak High School Football

From 0-4 to First Place: Mill Creek’s Turnaround Sets Up a Region Showdown With Buford

Published

54 minutes ago

October 22, 2026

From 0-4 to First Place: Mill Creek's Turnaround Sets Up a Region Showdown With Buford

Nobody in Gwinnett County has flipped a season like Mill Creek.

The Hawks started 0-4. They have not lost since. Mill Creek brings a three-game winning streak and a 3-0 region record into this week’s home showdown with Buford, a meeting of the region’s two remaining unbeaten teams in league play at Mill Creek Community Stadium in Hoschton.

The turnaround has been built on balance. The Hawks beat Seckinger 38-7 on Oct. 9 in their most recent outing before a week off, and they handled Central Gwinnett 43-16 earlier in the region run. At 3-4 overall, Mill Creek’s record does not tell the story of where this team is right now — its region record does.

Senior William Backus has been the heartbeat of the surge, starring on both sides of the ball. Backus has piled up 63 tackles with eight tackles for loss, five sacks, six quarterback hurries and two forced fumbles, and on offense he has caught six passes for 113 yards and two touchdowns. Around him, senior linebacker Wynn Skidmore has 43 tackles, senior defensive end Trent Wilkes has 45 tackles with nine for loss, and senior linebacker Brady Wendt has 39 tackles, four sacks and two interceptions.

On offense, junior quarterback Anderson Ragone has thrown for 710 yards and six touchdowns. Senior running back Nick Tuck leads the ground game with 216 yards and three rushing touchdowns, junior Dwayne Goldware has added 181 rushing yards and two scores plus 116 receiving yards and two more touchdowns, and junior Khanai Doe has chipped in 165 rushing yards.

Mill Creek has beaten Buford at home before — the Hawks won this matchup 31-24 in Hoschton in 2023 — and a defense playing its best football of the season gives them a real chance to do it again. From 0-4 to playing for first place in late October: that is what a turnaround looks like.

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Royal Jones

We Speak High School Football

Miller Grove Wolverines Hunting a Strong Finish After a Season of Fights

Published

44 minutes ago

October 22, 2026

Royal Jones

The Miller Grove Wolverines opened their season with a statement, and they have been fighting ever since. A 31-0 shutout of Chamblee in the opener showed what this Lithonia team can be, and the Wolverines have spent the fall proving that night was no fluke.

Miller Grove owns a 35-6 road win at McNair and a 20-8 win at Carver in Atlanta, victories built on defense and toughness. Look at those three wins together and a pattern emerges: Chamblee scored zero, McNair scored six and Carver scored eight. When the Wolverines win, they win with a defense that gives up almost nothing, and that identity travels anywhere. At 3-4, with 131 points scored and 135 allowed, nearly every Wolverines game this season has been a genuine fight, decided by which team made the plays late.

That includes the tough nights. The Wolverines fell 42-10 to a strong Columbia team on October 16 and dropped a 28-21 heartbreaker at M.L. King in an all-DeKalb battle earlier this season. Those are the kinds of games a program learns from.

That defensive identity is worth repeating, because it is rare: across their three wins, the Wolverines have allowed a total of 14 points. Fourteen. In an era of spread offenses and video-game scores, Miller Grove wins the old-fashioned way, with tackling, discipline and a defense that takes points personally. That travels in November, and it gives the Wolverines a real chance in every game left on the schedule.

The closing stretch gives Miller Grove every chance to finish the right way. South Atlanta visits on Friday, October 23, then the Wolverines travel to Cedar Grove on October 30 before closing at home against Redan.

Three games, three chances to turn a season of fights into a winning finish. In Lithonia, the Wolverines and their families have every reason to believe that is exactly what happens next.