Love was in the air Friday night in Millington.
No it wasn’t a fuzzy feeling or an emotion that filled the Flag City sky as the Bolton Wildcats arrived in town. Despite the buzz from passionate Millington Trojan fans in the Millington Football Stadium stands, the love in the air was the nickname of the football leaving the right hand of Trojan senior quarterback Eldon Tyms.
And when the pigskin founded the digits of his senior wide out Kip Fleming throughout the night, Millington Head Coach Chris Michael tend to love the results. The combination of Tyms to Fleming counted for three touchdowns in Millington’s 41-12 season-opening victory over Bolton.
“I felt a bond with the team,” Tyms said. “We were on point. Every drive, we were making about 4 or 5 yards a carry.We were doing so good.
“With Kip, it’s a good quarterback/receiver connection,” he continued. “It’s fun with his speed. It’s like when I see Kip going down the field, it’s love into the air. I just put the touch on it and he goes get it.”
Fleming scored on touchdowns of 47, 33 and 43 yards. His final score of the night made the score 41-6 at the end of the third quarter.
“The first one, I saw the love in the air,” Fleming said. “When I saw it, I went and got to it. It was on the money and I had to do it for the team. The second one was the same thing. I just had to get under it. The third one, he made me work for it. At the end I still love him.”
Early in the contest, Tyms did some of the work running the ball. The senior signal caller broke loose for a 58-yard run to the 1-yard line.
At the 10:57-mark of the first quarter, his Trojan teammate Keno Taylor capped off the first drive of the season with a 1-yard TD run.
The big plays continued for Millington leading to a 41-12 victory over Bolton.
The Trojans (1-0) nursed their 7-0 advantage into the second quarter. Then Millington exploded for 19 points in the period to build a 26-6 halftime lead.
The Trojans jumped ahead 13-0 after a pass interference call kept the drive alive leading to a 1-yard D’Monte Kemp touchdown run.
Bolton (0-1) set up Millington’s next score with a snap over the punter’s head into the end zone. Trying to get a kick off, the Wildcat punter was tackled at the 3-yard line. Tyms made Bolton pay for its mistake with a short TD run to make the tally 19-0.
The Wildcats got on the scoreboard for the first time in 2015 when LaZachary Rhodes score on a 1-yard run with 2 minutes and 33 second remaining in the first half.
“The defense a lot of mistakes, a lot new guys, new faces out there,” Michael said. “Some of them played well. Bolton was big across the front, but I thought they fought hard and competed hard against them.”
Michael noted the Trojan defense had typical first-game miscues with penalties, personal fouls and a couple of misjudged timing in the passing game.
“Our aggressiveness on defense was what I liked,” he added. “The mistakes we were making in some of their run game we can correct. It was because some of our guys were being too aggressive on the backside giving up some of the cutback lanes. That’s good instead of being passive and sitting back on our heals. For the most part I thought we played pretty good.”
With the score 19-6, the Trojans got a big play from the combination of Tyms to Kip Fleming. The senior duo hooked up for a 47-yard touchdown pass to make the halftime score 26-6.
Millington looked to put the game away in the third quarter. The Trojans started on that mission taking advantage of another bad Bolton special team’s play with the snap going over the punter’s head into the end zone again.
The safety made the score 28-6. The Wildcats suffered from another déjà vu moment when Tyms dropped back and found Fleming again for a TD strike. This time it was from 33 yards away to make the score 35-6.
Just before the third quarter concluded Ayvon Bess picked off a Bolton pass. The turnover set up the third Tyms to Fleming touchdown. This time Fleming took a short pass and used his speed to cross the goal line for the 43-yard TD.
“We scratched and clawed early,” Michael said. “We made some good plays on the offensive side. We put a few drives together and Kip and Eldon were able to connect on a few plays. They’re going to have to do that.”
Bolton had the final touchdown of the night when Austin Treadwell scored on a three yard run. The Wildcats will have to wait two weeks to try to earn win No. 1 of the season after a bye this upcoming Friday. Bolton returns to action Sept. 4 against Memphis Central.
Written by Thomas Sellers Jr., Journal West 10 editor. Contact him at (901) 872-2286 or thomas.sellers@journalinc.com.
