Did you read in The Millington Star and other local publications that the Oct. 18 showdown between the Fayette-Ware Wildcats and Millington Trojans was for the Region 8-4A championship?
Well that was almost 100 percent true. When the Bolton Wildcats picked up a win over the Craigmont Chiefs later in the month, Bolton’s visit to Mooney Boswell Field Friday made the match up against the host Trojans for a share of the championship.
Bolton wins — the Wildcats would be 2-1 in league with a victory over Millington. The Trojans would have been 2-1 in Region play as well, making it a three-way tie with Fayette-Ware. To avoid the confusion, the Trojans had to take care of business against the Wildcats.
After a sluggish first half with Millington holding a 10-6 advantage at the break, the Trojans put it all together to pull away with a 31-6 win.
“We told them it’s all or nothing for them,” Millington Head Coach Chris Michael said. “If they come out and win this game they could potentially go to first place in this league. They have everything to play for just like you do. You have to go out and match their intensity. That first quarter and half we did not do that.”
Maybe it was the cold weather that had the Trojans stuck in neutral, but Millington was stopped on its first possession. The Trojans (8-2, 3-0 in Region 8-4A) warmed up some late in the opening period to grab a 7-0 lead when quarterback Tommy Clifton scored on a 9-yard touchdown run.
That score came at the 3:18 mark of the first quarter. The Trojans would manage another scoring drive early in the second quarter. With 8 minutes and 53 seconds remaining in the first half, Trojan place kicker Eli Roberts kicked a nearly perfect spiral between the uprights from 32 yards away to make the tally 10-0.
Bolton (1-9, 1-2) came ready to fight and used a big play to set up a Demario House 3-yard TD run. The Wildcats trimmed the deficit to 10-6.
Bolton tried to gain more momentum late in the second quarter, recovering a fumbled kickoff. Millington’s defense answered the call and kept the Wildcats out of the end zone. The halftime score would be 10-6.
“We were moving the ball in the first half but had some penalties that got us like always,” Michael noted. “Defensively, they came out throwing the ball a lot more than we anticipated.
“We had to tweak our coverage and get our guys in a better position for how they were attacking our Cover 2,” he added. “We jumped out our Cover 2 and shut down the passing game. That allowed us to get some sacks.”
Sacks become the forte of Millington junior lineman Hunter Smith. Smith reached Bolton quarterbacks four times in the second half with tackles for loss.
Meanwhile the Trojan offense kept it simple with the running game. Clifton broke loose for a pair of TD runs in the second half of 34 and 37 yards respectively.
The final scoring blow of the night came courtesy of Trojan junior Adrian Dowell. The speedster took a pitch from Clifton while sweeping in the backfield. The momentum carried Dowell through the Wildcat defense, allowing him to score from 32 yards away.
When the final seconds ticked off the clock, it was official: The Trojans were back-to-back Region 8-4A champions. It was the first winning season for the Class of 2020 with three seniors who have played all four years: Clifton, Markess Flowers and Verdo Young.
Clifton was handed the reins of quarterback as a freshman. He suffered a season-ending injury as a sophomore and learned how to become a leader his junior season.
Meanwhile Flowers saw action on the line of scrimmage early in his carry. He had to mature while battling some of the strongest opposition from Germantown, St. Benedict, Munford and other larger schools.
Then there was a chubby freshman who matured into a lean, mean blocking machine with Young. Using wrestling to get his body into better shape, Young came into 2019 primed for a big season. But an injury against Munford took him out of action until the Bolton game.
“For those seniors, the small group of guys who have been here through those lean times, I am so happy for them and proud of them,” Michael said. “They stuck to it and have been the leaders. They’ve been doing so much for the underclassmen. Just laying a foundation for us — man, it was tough there with our schedule a couple of years getting everybody up to speed and more kids back into the program.
“Those guys were just there everyday doing things right, putting down a foundation that everyone else can see,” he concluded. “‘This is how we do it. I am proud of them for helping us get back to where the kids are excited about the game, the school is excited about the games. Kids are in the hallway talking about, ‘I’m going to play next year. I gonna play.’ They’ve created that.”
THOMAS SELLERS is the editor of The Millington Star and the sports editor for West 10 Media. Contact him at thomas@magicvalleypublishing.com.
