NEEDHAM – The message during Milton Academy warmups on Friday night was loud and clear.

When you’re in the ISL, records don’t matter. Every week is a one game playoff and a new opportunity to make history.

Players constantly reminded each other of that as the Mustangs went through their pregame preparations. St. Sebastian’s entered the matchup as the talk of the ISL. The unbeaten Arrows had given up just 43 points all season and had won its first five games. Meanwhile, Milton Academy was having a bit of a down year and seemingly didn’t have much of a chance despite being one of the elite programs in the league.

Well, thanks to a phenomenal defensive performance and a late touchdown catch by Qayson Kara on a beautiful ball from Jacob Holtschlag, the Mustangs knocked off the Arrows 20-13 in front of a massive crowd.

Milton Academy (4-2) forced multiple turnovers, overcame a few of its own and ran out the final 4:06 with an impressive drive before storming the field, embracing a huge group of students decked out in “white out” clothing after the handshake line.

“It’s a great feeling,” said Milton Academy head coach Kevin MacDonald. “We thought we were a pretty good team, we just haven’t been putting it all together. We thought we finally got the right guys in the right positions and we were feeling good about ourselves as a team. Obviously, Sebs is a great team, we thought we’d have a decent chance. They’re very well coached and they don’t do many dumb things.

“I was just thrilled the way things turned out. The fact we didn’t do dumb things today made me happy. We didn’t get a lot of stupid penalties or things we’ve done in the past…we had to win today, we absolutely had to win today to have a chance at a bowl game.”

This was just a good old fashioned high school football game with two highly competitive teams for the first 24 minutes before all hell broke loose in the third quarter.

Leading 13-10 at the half, Milton Academy started the third with the ball, but quickly gave it to Sebs when Zion Simmons intercepted a Holtschlag pass and set the offense up at the Milton Academy 18 after a lengthy return. After eight plays – the teams traded penalties back and forth during the drive – Andrew Rappleyea blocked a field goal for Milton Academy. Four plays after that, Jake Murley recovered a fumble for the Arrows at the Mustangs’ 42.

Sebs went three and out, but got the ball back two snaps later when they recovered another fumble at the Mustangs’ eight yard line. Again, the Milton Academy defense stood tall and held Sebs to a 20 yard Cooper Bolton field goal five seconds into the fourth quarter, making it 13-13.

After forcing a quick three and out, Sebs took over at its own 31 with 10:49 remaining. Moments later, Jack Crowley came up with a strip sack on Arrows QB Ty Ciongoli and Darius Banaitis recovered the loose ball at the Arrows’ 22. One play later, Holtschlag hit Qayson Kara with a beautiful ball up right sideline, giving Milton Academy a 20-13 lead with 6:28 to go.

Sebs got a good return and took over at its own 40, but then had to punt with 4:06 to go. The Mustangs made sure the Arrows never saw the ball again, putting the game away with one final drive including a huge run on third and five from Matt Childs.

“We’re going to be coming in hot after this one,” Holtschlag said with a grin when asked what this does for the program momentum wise. “We’ve got two more games, two more great opponents we’ve got to take care of, and then a bowl game is our goal at the end of the year That’s out of our hands obviously, but we’re going to control what we can control and win football games and we’ll see them from there.”

A 75 yard touchdown catch from Jack Boyle on the third play of the game put Sebs up early, but a four yard TD run from Childs and PAT from Ben Waterman made it 7-7 after one. Bolton hit a 20 yard field goal after Milton Academy forced a 10 play drive to stall out early in the second to make it 10-7 Sebs. Milton Academy had to punt, but forced a turnover on downs at its own 40 late in the first half. Holtschlag hit Rappleyea from a yard out with 17 seconds left to cap the ensuing 11-play drive, and a blocked PAT kept it a three-point game at the break.

“It just shows resilience,” added Holtschlag. “Giving the ball up, getting it right back, that defense just came up so strong…that’s a great team we just played. I have a lot of respect for those players. It just shows resilience.

“We’ve seen glimpses of it this year, but to put it all together on a night like this, it’s awesome.”