The Indians of Millersburg, who will travel about two hours to get to Columbia for Friday's District 3 Class A football playoff game (7 p.m. Kick), are no strangers to playoff success.
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| Cole Boyer |
Out of the Twin Valley/Tri-Valley League, the Indians have enjoyed success in the playoffs.
The Indians, who lost in the finals last year, under current coach Steve Boyer, to Holy Name, 27-20, have played in the finals every year since 2006. They won a district title, beating league rival Upper Dauphin, 15-12 in 2009, In the semi-finals that year, Millersburg under then coach Roy Wall, stunned Steel-High in the semi-finals, 14-13. Wall is now the coach at Northern Lebanon.
Overall in 15 games, Millersburg is 9-6, with three of those losses to the Rollers.
The Indians, who are playing Columbia for the first time, have just five seniors on their roster.
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| Josh Howard |
Leading the way for the Indians is quarterback/defensive back Josh Howard, a junior. Howard through 10 games has completed 41 of 91 passes for 582 yards. He's been picked off nine times and thrown six touchdown passes. The biggest impact Howard will have is running the football. He's the leading rusher with 831 yards on 193 attempts and has scored 14 rushing touchdowns.
Other big ball carriers are Travis Lamereaux, also a junior, who has rushed for 724 yards on 111 carries and Cole Boyer, a senior, with 193 yards. For the season, Millersburg has rushed for 1,940 yards in 10 games.
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| Travis Lamereaux |
Howard's favorite receiver is Boyer with 12 catches and senior Christian Wenner with nine catches. Boyer and Lamereaux each have caught two touchdowns.
Millersburg runs similar schemes on offense and defense like Northern Lebanon.
Defensively, the top tackler with 93 stops is junior linebacker Dawson Schlegel, followed by Lamereaux, who doubles as a linebacker with 72 and another linebacker Connor Keim with 55 stops. Keim is a freshman.
On special teams, Blake Wood has kicked 17 PATs; Decker Klawitter leads the Indians in kick returns, while Lamereaux handles the punting and punt returns.
Millersburg playoff history
1992: Wyomissing 21, Millersburg 01993: Scotland 28,. Millersbirg 15
2006: Millersburg 56, Hanover 0; Millersburg 28, Halifax 14; Steel-High 47, Millersburg 31/
2007: Millersburg 54, Upper Dauphin 0; Millersburg 30, Holy Name 13; Steel-High 24, Millersburg 21.
2008: Millersburg 41, Central Catholic 7; Steel-High 42, Millersburg 7
2009: Millersburg 41, Central Catholic 0; Millersburg 14, Steel-High 13; Millersbutg 15, Upper Dauphin 12.
2010: Millersburg 13, York Catholic 12; Holy Name 27, Millersburg 20.
