LILBURN, Ga. — Update: Mill Creek came away with a 30-20 win.
Original story:
In a battle of Gwinnett County's best under the Friday night lights, Parkview and Mill Creek are both looking to keep their perfect record alive in the 2023 high school football season.
It'll be a top 10 battle in the 7A classification when the Panthers of Parkview welcome in the Hawks of Mill Creek on Friday night.
Mill Creek is coming off of a historic season where they won their first state championship in their young history, a state title game in which they broke the scoring record with 70 points and entered the GHSA record books by scoring the 9th-most points in an entire season, with 712.
After quarterback Hayden Clark graduated in May, Mill Creek has turned to junior Shane Throgmartin who has picked up right where Clark left off (24 TDs, 2 INTs) in 2022. Throgmartin has completed over 76% of his passes (51-67) for 549 yards, 10 touchdowns and no interceptions.
Senior running back Cameron Robinson returns at running back for the Hawks as another explosive weapon after he torched the competition for over 1,800 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground a season ago.
The 5'9", 180-pound back has rushed for 484 yards on 59 carries -- good for over eight yards per rush. He'll look to try and top his season-high 219 rushing yards against Cedar Grove in a 56-35 win last week.
But the brightest prospect for the Hawks actually comes on the defensive side of the ball. Defensive end King Joseph Edwards may not only have the best name on the field Friday night, but he may very well be the most talented defensively.
Edwards is a four-star DE with offers from Georgia, Colorado, Alabama, Ole Miss, Florida State, Auburn and 31 other schools. According to 11Alive's insiders at Rivals, the 6-foot-5, 242-pound senior is expected to stay home and choose UGA.
On the flip side, Parkview is off to a fast start under new head coach Joe Sturdivant. They are searching for their first 5-0 start since 2018 when the Panthers were a perfect 11-0 before getting bounced in the second round by Archer.
Mill Creek's defense is going to have their hands full with Parkview wide receiver Mike Matthews Friday night. The five-star wideout and No. 7 overall player in the 2024 class is heading to Tennessee next fall after receiving an offer from virtually every big-time Power Five school.
Matthews has been hampered a bit by inconsistent quarterback play this year, but he's coming off a year when he caught 48 balls for 1,030 yards -- a ridiculous 21.5 yards per catch. He put up those numbers under last year's quarterback Colin Houck. If that name sounds familiar, it's because Houck was drafted in the first round of the 2023 MLB Draft by the New York Mets.
Defensively, four-star cornerback Jalyn Crawford will look to keep Mill Creek from getting any sort of passing game going. Crawford is committed to Auburn where he will begin next fall.
Parkview is 0-2 all-time against Mill Creek. They last met in 2021, when the Hawks won 43-10. The game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at The Big Orange Jungle.
>>Watch highlights of Parkview and Mill Creek's most recent wins this season below: