By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The plan for the Millington Trojans and Head Coach Chris Michael coming to the Friday night regular-season finale was to beat the Bolivar Central Tigers and continue to build momentum toward the postseason.
The Tigers quickly tossed a monkey wrench in the agenda for the host Trojans, keeping the first half competitive on the new turf of Mooney Boswell Field. The halftime score was 20-14 in favor of Millington.
The Trojans were nursing a 7-point advantage in the third quarter before pulling away 48-20 and securing the No. 3 seed in the Class 3A State Football Playoffs traveling to Memphis next week to take on the East Mustangs.
“The guys are finally starting to execute efficiently on the offensive side of the ball,” Michael said of his Trojans. “Defensively we’ve faced different kinds of challenges with run games, passing games. This was something we haven’t seen on film.
“We didn’t even see a running back on film,” he continued. “So we practiced all week with Nickel and Dime coverage all over the field playing Man (coverage). We had to make a quick adjustment after giving up two scores right out of the get-go. We have to make an adjustment and come out of the defense we had practiced all week long to go back to our Base Defense.”
Millington (6-4, 3-2 in Region 7-3A) took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter when quarterback McCoy Pugh scored on a 12-yard run with 4:54 remaining in the period.
Bolivar (1-9, 0-5) tied the game at 7-7 in the second quarter when Joe Gibson capped off a 78-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.
The Trojans regained the lead at the 7:03 mark of the period when Jaydon Williams crossed the goal line from 2-yards out.
Less than a minute later the Tigers deadlock the game at 14-14 when Cuaron Price caught a pass from quarterback Carson Howell for an 88-yard touchdown.
Millington went back ahead before halftime courtesy of Pugh’s second TD run. The junior broke a couple of tackles and out-raced the Tiger defenders for the 57-yard touchdown run giving the Trojans a 20-14 lead at the break.
Millington appeared ready to pull away from the Tigers early in the third quarter when Pugh hit receiver Blake Garner in stride for a 31-yard touchdown pass. The Trojans were ahead 27-14.
Once again Bolivar and the answer when Howell located a wide receiver for a 29-yard touchdown. The Tigers were trailing 27-20 with 5 minutes and 40 seconds left in the period.
The fourth quarter was all Trojans with 21 points. The primary offensive star of the show was Williams. The underclassman running back scored two touchdowns in the final quarter.
Meanwhile the Millington defense led by Jonathan Temple-Dowdy neutralized Howell and the Tigers. Trojan defenders like Jackson Ford, Jeremiah Temple-Dowdy, J’vion Todd and Cameron Puryear were just some of the Millington defenders making tackles.
The final touchdown of the night came courtesy of Millington senior Jay’kwon Walker to make the final score 48-20.
“The offense has been executing at a pretty high clip,” Michael said. “Special teams were pretty solid again tonight, kickoff we covered well. It’s just a good finish this past two weeks like we talked about. We’ve done what we set out to do — win these games and gain some momentum.
“The things we are capable of doing, now we’ve seen them out there on the field,” he added. “Run game, passing game and defense playing pretty stingy. So hopefully we can have a good week of preparation for East. Wherever they send us, we’ll go down there and steal a victory in that First Round.”
The Mustangs will enter the playoffs after a 5-5 season but a 5-1 mark in Region 8-3A. East has won three games in a row and closed out the regular season with a 33-0 win over Trezevant.
“ From an offensive standpoint, your scheme is your scheme,” Michael noted. “The defensive fronts you’ve seen throughout the season, by the time you’ve played a 10-game season, you’ve seen every kind of defensive front. So there won’t be anything that’s a secret. We’ll know what East is going to do and they’ll know what we’re going to do. I know that we’re not going outside the box creating any kind of crazy offensive or defensive type of scheme.
“We’re just trying to go out there and be as prepared as we can be and execute our plan to the best of our ability,” he concluded. “And hope our kids can out execute East’s kids to pull out a victory. They’re the No. 2 seed for a reason. They’re going to get to host this game because they earn that. We have to go on the road by dropping that Dyersburg game. Now we’ve just got to go week by week on the road trying to get one win at a time.”
