Millbrook football tops Wake Forest, earns share of league title in regular-season finale
Millbrook two-way player David Santiago caught two passes from quarterback Mason Fortune for two touchdowns in Friday’s Northern Athletic 4A Conference regular-season finale at Wake Forest. His efforts helped the Wildcats to a 34-14 win, Millbrook’s second in as many seasons over the Cougars.
Millbrook (9-1, 4-1) secured a share of the league championship for the second consecutive year.
Santiago’s first touchdown covered 12 yards at the second quarter’s 4:56 mark and put Wake Forest down by two touchdowns for the first time this season. This scoring drive was preceded by Session McArthur’s first of two interceptions.
Fortune connected with Nathan Leacock for a 77-yard touchdown inside the two-minute mark of the second quarter that accounted for Millbrook’s 20th point and set the 20-7 halftime count. Before Friday, the Cougars’ defense surrendered 20 points in just one game this season (October 21 against Rolesville).
McArthur’s second pick set up a touchdown run by teammate John Alarcon Gomez inside the three-minute mark of the fourth quarter. Wildcats’ kicker Angel Gomez Corona closed the scoring with his fourth extra point conversion.
Gomez Corona’s first extra point followed Xavier Pugh’s second-quarter touchdown run that broke the game’s scoreless tie.
Wake Forest quarterback Kavon Simmons completed four passes of 25-plus yards, including three for 106 yards to Nigel Lucas (who also blocked an extra point attempt).
One of those four completions — a 58-yarder to Dashaun Grant — yielded six points 2:29 before halftime. Cougars running back Michael Dipasquale accounted for his team’s other touchdown on a 5-yard run with 9:08 remaining in the third quarter.
Santiago corralled Fortune’s 50-yard pass for another touchdown two-and-a-half minutes later.
Wake Forest (8-2, 4-1) lost in Trentini Stadium for the first time since a 2019 N.C. 4AA state semifinals setback to Leesville Road. Thirty-four points were the most allowed at home by Wake Forest since Cardinal Gibbons snapped the Cougars’ 45-game winning streak on August 19, 2019.
The Wildcats, Cougars, and Rolesville Rams are in a three-way first-place tie, with each team having one conference loss. Wake Forest won at Rolesville, while the host Rams topped Millbrook.
This story was originally published October 28, 2022 at 11:48 PM with the headline "Millbrook football tops Wake Forest, earns share of league title in regular-season finale."