PREP FOOTBALL: Niceville easily defeats Milton – Prepares for Tallahassee Lincoln Trojans.

Soggy and dominant. Eagles' quick start leads to a throttling of Milton's defense.

For the third Friday in a row, fans dawned their maroon attire and flooded the stands of Eagle Stadium to watch their beloved hometown football team dominate under the Friday Night Lights. This week’s opponent was Milton High School, who left painfully defeated after being handed their first loss of the season.

Dark clouds blanketed the sky, and a sporadic drizzle left the fields wet, but as usual, the Eagles persevered and pushed through. Eight minutes into the first quarter, Niceville’s #7 Maddax Fayard scored a touchdown, setting the scene for a victorious night. Within the following 10 minutes, Niceville scored again; this time, it was by #18 Mo Seck, who caught a 29-yard pass by the starting Quarterback, #15 Kane LaFortune.

The second quarter did not disappoint, with the Eagles scoring most of their points in this timeframe. The quarter started with yet another touchdown made by Niceville’s #7 Maddax Fayard. Following a pattern from the first quarter, only six minutes had passed between Fayard running a touchdown and #15 Kane LaFortune completing a 6-yard pass to #12 Tim Smith for a touchdown. The first half of the game was wrapped up beautifully with Maddax Fayard scoring his third touchdown of the night, leaving the Eagles with a score of 35-0 going into halftime.

As usual, halftime was just as entertaining as the football game itself. Milton’s band kicked off the 16 minute intermission with a short performance but was soon outshined by Niceville’s award-winning marching band with over 300 members, the Eagle Pride. After the halftime show, the drumline joined the cheerleaders and dance team in front of the student section, clothed in neon from head to toe, to do Niceville’s halftime tradition involving silly string and colored chalk cannons. The energy was buzzing, and everyone was ready for the second half of the game.

Niceville's second stringers close out the game on a strong note.

The third quarter saw no additional points on the scoreboard for either team, but it did see Niceville swapping their starters out for their backups.

The new lineup of Eagles were prepared to finish the game off strong for their team as they headed into the game’s final quarter. However, a few minutes into the quarter, Milton scored their only points of the night as #5 Ethan Diamond ran the ball for a rushing touchdown. But in true Eagle fashion, backup quarterback #16 Caleb Sartori came back immediately with a short pass to #25 Robert Stith, who then ran the ball a whopping 80 yards for a touchdown, which was followed by a solid point after by kicker #62 Brad Martin, leaving the Eagles with a final score of 42-7.

Week Three - the Eagles first tough test against a Tallahassee team.

Niceville’s Senior kicker, #47 Logan Marise, shined last night with beautiful kickoffs and scored 5 additional points for the Eagles. Marise has made quite the name for himself since starting football during his sophomore year, as he is a key player for the team’s success and is currently ranked 64th in the nation for the recruiting class 2024 by Kohl’s Kicking. Despite the wet field conditions, Marise believes that he and his new holder and snapper did much better yesterday than they did last week and is heading into the next week of practices planning to “make sure punts are ready to go, because Lincoln is very good at blocking punts and we cant let them score one against us.”

Overall, the offense showed a drastic improvement from last week’s game against North Miami Beach, and the team dynamic was strong as ever, enabling the Eagles to work together as one and secure a big win under the Friday Night Lights.