After a tough overtime win against Edmond Memorial, the Millers look to take on its most formidable challenge of the year against Union in their 1st matchup in the playoffs as they look to bring a state championship back home. Union has an overall record of 9-1 overall in their games, only losing to Jenks and are an undefeated 7-0 in their league. With the Millers being 4-6 overall and 4-3 in their league, naturally, Union is viewed as the heavy favorite. Still, coaches and players for the Millers believe they have a great chance to upset the favored Union team.
“If we can go out there and do the things that we have focused on this week, there’s no real reason why we wouldn’t be able to win this game,” Defensive coordinator coach Hubbard said. “When it comes to this game, we have three goals that if we accomplish, our defense will do what they need to get done to win this game. Those things are to play smart, play hard, and play together.”
With every defense in a sport, there will need to be an offense to counteract it, which is what Offensive coordinator coach Kellet plans to do.
“The main thing that we have been working on is our players’ individual play,” Kellet said. “We need to make sure that everyone performs their role in the exact way it was designed for them to do, and our guys know that and have done a great job on working on it.”
Making the playoffs this year for the Millers isn’t their only goal on their mind this season. The players seem to have a bit of extra motivation to help them overcome this obstacle that Union poses.
“I always go into practice every time getting ready to work on my game, but with what position we are in the playoffs, I think not only myself but everyone else realized that we needed to pick up our game even more,” senior Shane Scott said. “Everyone after practice, including myself, have put everything we got into practice so that we can be prepared for any challenge that Union might try to pull on us.”
Coaches also noticed how much this means to their players through the amount of work they have displayed at practice.
“From what I’ve been seeing from our guys’ work on the field during practice, I can’t help to be not just excited but confident that we have a real shot to win this game,” Kellet said. “I can sense that our players know that they might be the underdogs in this game, but Union still needs to be worried because when a team like ours gets that nothing to lose mentality, it can get scary for any team. So we might be the underdogs, yes, but that doesn’t mean you can look at us that way, or else I can promise you that you’ll regret it.”