Chalk this one up to being better

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MILLEDGEVILLE - Seven words, scribbled ceremoniously on the blackboard hanging inside the Milledgeville locker room, said it all. "And we didn't even need a fluke," read the message, written in white chalk by an unknown author. Nope. There were no game-winning touchdowns scored after accidental onside kicks. No measurements that made you hold your breath like it was your first born. No questions marks. Only exclamation points. This was just a good, old-fashioned, we're-better-than-you victory that stretched this "f" word, "fluke," past its breaking point and into pieces. For Milledgeville, Saturday's 30-15 victory against Galena was bye-bye defending state champ, hello Class 1A semifinals, Stark County and respect. "All week we were talking about, 'They're going to kill us. They're going to kill us,' " said Milledgeville running back Jake Workman, who churned his spikes to the tune of 126 yards and two touchdowns on 25 tough-like-sandpaper carries. "Everyone was saying how we were a fluke." All the fluke talk was born of the Missiles' 22-16 win over Galena in an NUIC Upstate showdown in Week 6 of the regular season - the Pirates' only loss until they met Milledgeville again Saturday in a Class 1A quarterfinal at Floyd Daub Field. During the fourth quarter of that game, the Missiles erased a 10-point deficit after two Workman touchdowns and two fourth-down conversions inside the 10-yard line. Oh, and the oops of an onside kick, recovered by Ryan Imel, after the Missiles pulled within six. Milledgeville needed no such lady luck at this dance. Still, the tone underlying the voices of some Missiles this week wreaked of uncertainty. Was that win a fluke? Could the Missiles slay the giant again? "I don't want to see them this early, as good as they are," Missiles Mr. Do It All quarterback/defensive back Kirk Engelkens said matter-of-factly on Wednesday. "I guess we'll see what happens." And I guess we did. Workman ran. Engelkens threw. Allen Nelson sacked, and sacked again. Nate Ebersole caught. And the defense rested only when Milledgeville's offense had the ball - 33 minutes to Galena's 15. "I was hoping we didn't blow it, like when they gave up 10 points to us before," end Kurt Landis said. And so they didn't. The Little Engine that can, still is. "It felt so good to beat them again," said Nelson, who had two late sacks as Galena tried to make things interesting. "But coming into this game, I was nervous." Engelkens was a little more to the point. "That's what it sounded like, from whatever I read - newspapers, Web sites - Galena was going to come out and run over us, beat us by 20," he said as he leaned against a car just outside the Milledgeville locker room, eyes fixed off in the distance. Then he scratched the hair on his chinny, chin, chin - his playoff beard blowing haywire in the breeze - and offered up another piece of honesty. "Not after the first drive, did I think things looked good for us," he said of the Pirates taking a 7-0 lead after going 66 yards on six plays. "I was like, 'Oh, no. Here we go.' " And there the Missiles went, right back down the field, 70 yards in 11 plays before Workman's 2-yard touchdown run. Three of the first four times they had the ball, the Missiles scored, knocking themselves into next week. Win that one, and it's hello Champaign. "It's fun to think you can have Thanksgiving in Champaign the night before [state championship game]," Landis said. He followed that statement with a warning - mostly to himself and the Missiles - about taking things one week at a time. "This is the first time we're in the semifinals since '99," he continued. "It would be fun to keep going."