By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The normal buzz and energy surrounding a season opening football game was absence from the Millington sky Friday night.
Instead the atmosphere was replaced with a thick layer of skepticism and caution. The staff of Millington Central High School welcomed spectators to Mooney Bosewell Field for the Ripley Tigers vs. Millington Trojans contest with thermometers, sanitizers and masks.
The 7 o’clock kickoff was subdued for the Tiger and Trojan fans. But by the time Ripley defensive back Princeton Rogers made an interception of a Millington pass, things started to feel like normal throughout the stands and field.
The scoreless first quarter transformed into a 22-0 Tiger halftime advantage. Ripley’s defense kept the Millington offense led by freshman quarterback McCoy Pugh stuck in neutral the entire night leading to a Tigers 30-7 victory.
“Nothing you can really do to prepare him in practice for a team like Ripley,” Millington Head Coach Chris Michael said of Pugh. “A team that has the amount of talent, size and athleticism like they do defensively. You just try to give him schemes, the right reads and let him kind of learn trail by error.
“We tried to run the ball which was a challenge against their front,” he continued. “So we were really forced to throw the ball a little bit more. And he did some good things. He made a few reads and he made a few reads he shouldn’t have made. He saw some things that weren’t really there. He missed some he should have saw. But he’s looking for them. He’s soaking up between series. I was pretty pleased with what he did.”
Pugh had a couple of highlight moments in the first half hitting target Garrett Haley on a couple of routes for first downs. Later in the game, Pugh made a down-the-field throw to speedster Reggie Caldwell for a big gain.
But those plays happened quarters a part. While Millington couldn’t put a string of good plays together on offense, the Tigers (1-0) got rolling in the second quarter.
At the 10:44 mark of the period dual-threat quarterback TJ Elder raced into the end zone for the first score of 2020 from 9 yards out to make the score 6-0.
About 4 minutes later the Ripley advantage grew to 14-0 when Tiger second quarterback Joseph Fincher executed a quarterback keeper for a 3-yard score. The two-point conversion was successful.
Right before the halftime whistle the Tigers added a Corterrion Moore 7-yard TD run and Elder two-point conversion to make the tally 22-0.
“I saw some young kids jump on the field and show spurts of what we think they could be,” Michael said of his Trojans. “There wasn’t any consistency there. The positive to me we ran some young kids out there besides Pugh. I saw some things good there and I saw some of my upperclassmen and skill guys make plays. They played hard and did what they were supposed to do.
“I think the special teams did a good job,” he added. “Eli Roberts did a good job of stepping in to punt the ball tonight. I think he punt the ball three or four times tonight with each one being good. The coverage wasn’t that good tonight. He did a great job on his kickoffs. We were fortunate to get a good return on one of our kickoffs for a touchdown. That was definitely a positive. I think probably the thing I took from the game the most is we need to work on consistency. But that’s hard to do without that depth.”
The third quarter wen scoreless. Then Ripley went ahead 30-0 when Moore made his second trip to the house with a 9-yard run.
Millington (0-1) got on the scoreboard for the first time in 2020 on the next play. The Tigers kicked the ball into the hands of Caldwell. The senior athlete started to run toward the opposite sideline and then made a cutback.
Caldwell was in the end zone 82 yards later. Roberts blasted the extra point through the uprights to make the score 30-7. The Trojans matched the Tigers play for play in the final 6 minutes of the game before Ripley departed back up Highway 51 victorious.
“They have a really good football team,” Michael concluded. “This is the year they’re going to rock that district up there and make Haywood work for it.”
Now Michael and the Trojan coaching staff are off to watch film of next Friday’s opponent the Munford Cougars for the annual M&M Bowl. The Cougars will host the rivalry game with a 7 p.m. scheduled kickoff.
Munford opened the 2020 season at Covington Friday night. The Tipton County showdown was won by the Chargers 41-6.
