By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The William Carter Era was delayed last Thursday. The first hold up was the arrival of the visiting Memphis Central Lady Warriors to USA Stadium in Millington for the 5:30 p.m. scheduled start. While Carter’s Millington Lady Trojans were warming up on the field, Memphis Central arrived. But the Lady Warriors’ arrival appeared to bring lightning to the area. That was another 30 minute of waiting for Carter and his girls. As the skies cleared and Memphis Central was ready to go, the game started with the Lady Warriors jumping ahead 1-0. Millington regrouped in the second half and got a goal from Marissa Ward tying the contest. Despite playing a better second half, the Lady Trojans suffered a late goal from Memphis Central to lose the season opener 2-1. “Overall we played well,” Carter said. “It kind of showed we had those first-game jitters. We came out a little nervous to me. We didn’t fight for those 50/50 ball. But by the second half, they came out with that renewed intensity. “We kind of overwhelmed them and dominated possession time,” he added. “Good thing usually happen when you dominate ball possession time. We had some good move out there. We had that one minor breakdown on that double substitution there due to injury. Over than that, that was the only real hiccup we had there in the second half. I really like what we see and we’re really looking forward to playing TRA Monday.” The game against the Tipton-Rosemark Academy Rebels was the second for the Lady Trojans. The opener against Memphis Central marked the Lady Warriors’ fifth contest of the season. The Lady Warriors were a step quicker in the early moments of the game and took a 1-0 lead midway through the first half. Millington settled down and started to match Memphis Central step for step late in the first half and majority of second half. The Lady Trojans’ explosiveness paid off when Ward was able to get a shot on goal into the net. Memphis Central broke the deadlock with about 2 minutes left in the game when Millington had to replace a couple of injured players.
“I hope they learn from this game like I told them at the end of the day, ‘I was really proud of what you did,’” Carter concluded. “They were really playing great ball at first. They made he necessary adjustments and came out in that second half with intensity and they showed they wanted to win. There was zero hesitation.”
