By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The 2021 soccer season has been full of highlights for the Millington Trojans.
Thursday evening at Hornet Field added a few more noteworthy moments for Coach William Carter’s squad. Millington welcomed area rival the Brighton Cardinals to town and won the game 7-0. The victory over the Cardinals improved the Trojans to 6-1-1 overall while sporting an unbeaten record in District 15-2A play.
“Best start we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Carter said. “I think they’re progressing nicely as they begin to buy into the system. Unfortunately and fortunately we still haven’t had all of our starters for one game yet. Colby (Goode) was out tonight.
“We still haven’t had the 11 people I wanted to start on the field at one time,” he continued. “Hopefully by Tuesday everybody will be here and ready to have the actual lineup we want. I feel really good.”
The good feelings for Coach Carter and his crew began with a 3-0 lead by halftime over Brighton.
About 8 minutes into the game, the Trojans cracked the scoreboard with a goal courtesy of Timmy Aderinoye in traffic.
Millington’s lead grew to 2-0 when Fernando Hernandez executed a penalty kick after a hand-ball call. Then the highlight of the night came off the foot of Kenji White.
White found himself with the ball near the outside of the goalie box. Before a Brighton defender could engage him, White launched a shot that curved through the air like Beckham and dropped in the back of the net with less than 5 minutes remaining in the first half.
What took 40 minutes in the first half happened in less than 15 minutes of the second half. Millington tallied three goal courtesy of Aaron Blankenship, Chase Michael and Andres Garcia.
The final goal of the game was another showcase moment when Porter White was in the open field and made a move to create space from his defender. From the 18-spot, White blasted the shot across the field into the net to make the final 7-0.
“I was worried this might be a trap game because Brighton is not having it’s best season,” Carter said. “They have a lot of freshmen but they are still fundamentally sound. We had a game plan when we came in.
“We just wanted to be a little bit more aggressive, exploit the space and make them play reactionary soccer,” he concluded. “I think it worked out pretty well.”
