By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The last time these two teams met, it was a physical battle going in favor of the Millington Trojans over the Covington Chargers.
Covington made the trip back to Flag City last Friday this time with the District 15-2A Soccer Championship on the line. The intensity came from both teams for all 80 minutes with the Trojans outlasting the Chargers 2-1 to claim the title and make it two district championships in a row.
“It feels really good,” District Coach of the Year and Trojan leader William Carter said. “We like playing Covington and I know it got a little heated there in the second half. Whenever you have a close game with two teams who know each other, it’s going to get physical like that. And a championship was on the line. I hope their player who got hurt there toward the end will be OK and able to play next week.”
Covington advances to Regionals to play the Region 8 champions on the road. Meanwhile the Millington victory earned them a home game in Regionals against Memphis RISE. The Trojans’ path to the win started with a Daniel Garcia goal in the first four minutes of the district championship game.
About 11 minutes later the Trojans had a corner kick. Chase Michael fired a pass into the goalie area and a streaking Porter White headed the ball in midair for the point putting Millington ahead 2-0 in the first half.
The Chargers under the direction of Robert Luttrell made a couple of adjustments to limit the Millington offensive players. The Trojans’ shots on goals were limited for the final 60 minutes of the contest.
On the contrary Covington got more aggressive offensively putting the Millington defensive line of Aaron Garay, Noel Rostro, McCoy Pugh and Aaron Blankenship on high alert.
Finally Covington was able to penetrate the Millington defense for a goal midway in the second half. The score was 2-1.
It was time for the 2022 District Co-Keeper of the Year Dylan Chapman to elevate his game. The senior keeper made back-to-back saves to help his Trojans win the championship.
“On that first save, I really just hit it up because that was all I could do there,” Chapman recalled of his leaping block to deflect the Covington shot attempt.
Seconds later Covington had a corner kick and the ball came flying into Chapman’s domain.
“On the second save, I saw them, so I started backing up,” he noted. “I thought I hit it out, but it came back in. They all crushed, so I just balled up and held onto the ball. I thought I was going to get hit in the head a lot but I got up and threw the ball. Well I tried to throw it, but they all just started slapping my arm.”
Chapman reflected on the second half effort as he held his award in his keepers’ glove.
“They put a lot of stress on me today,” he acknowledged. “Every time they had the ball coming toward me on the right side they made me nervous. But my defense was always there for me and they always had it. Aaron (Blankenship) is my best guy in the back. McCoy, Noel and Aaron G, those are all my guys back there. I share this award with them.”
Carter said it’s going to take the leadership of Chapman and the other recent graduates of Millington Central to push through Regionals and give Millington a shot at reaching State for the first time in school history.
“What we need to see is what we’ve been seeing, the guys who are the starters now and the seniors now just have to be doing the things on the off days as far as conditioning,” he concluded.
