Birmingham Groves Boys’ Football clear former manager rival Seaholm 3-0

As Mori Miller held an iPhone in his left hand, the eldest waved with his other for his teammates to come up behind him for a celebratory selfie in front of the Birmingham Groves boys’ football team bench on Tuesday night .

“Everybody’s in on this,” the returning All-Stater shouted.

It was definitely a memory the Falcons (4-2-6, 3-0-1) wanted to preserve.

Not only had Groves just made the nearly 2-mile trip down Evergreen Road to defeat rival Birmingham Seaholm, 3-0, and stay in first place in the Oakland Activities Association-White, but he did it against his former coach.

After leading the Falcons for two years, Greg Perkins left them this past offseason to take control of the Maples.

The rivalry match was already heated. Yellow cards were distributed. And the student sections of both schools did not disappoint. It was quite a rowdy environment for the first meeting of the season between Groves and Seaholm.

But the fact that Perkins welcomed his former team stirred up strong emotions among Groves players.

Mori Miller of Birmingham Groves looks to score during an Oakland Activities Association-White Boys football match on Tuesday September 13, 2022 at Birmingham Seaholm.

“It was almost impossible to ignore,” said Miller, a captain who scored twice. “I completely respect Greg. He’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever had. I love him as a person. I don’t think he should have gone to Seaholm, but he went and he saw his mistake (tonight).

“We keep texting each other all the time and checking each other’s seasons. I have a great relationship with him. But tonight we had to put that aside and focus on the game.”

Miller actually played on Perkins’ travel squad before this fall.

And many other Falcons have fond memories of playing for him.

But they wanted their revenge.

Birmingham Groves coach Paul Thomas directs his attack during an Oakland Activities Association-White Boys football match on Tuesday September 13, 2022 at Birmingham Seaholm.

“It’s a rivalry game, so it’s going to be more emotional, but we have to control those emotions and stick to the game plan,” Groves first-year coach Paul Thomas said. β€œFor the players it certainly made a lot more sense tonight, but I think from an overall program perspective and as staff we tried to keep them focused on the game and take some of that away from it. emotion.”

Both teams drew 0-0 in the first half.

At half-time, Thomas made an adjustment in attack for his forwards to use the inside space between Seaholm’s outside and centre-backs.

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