By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Turnovers, miscues, penalties and missed opportunities plagued both the Millington Trojans and Brighton Cardinals Friday night on Mooney Boswell Field.
The Trojans endured a majority of their woes in the first half, meanwhile the Cardinals suffered from costly errors during crunch time to fall 20-7. The defeat dropped Brighton to 1-1 and Millington improved to 2-0 on the season.
Millington had a Eldon Tyms TD pass called back because of a holding penalty. A personal foul call on the Trojans kept a Brighton drive alive. Despite those costly flags, the Trojans were ahead 10-7 at the break behind a Tyms to Kip Fleming 30-yard touchdown pass and Luke Bell 32-yard field goal.
After Bell’s field goal early in the second quarter, the Trojans were ahead 10-0. Brighton had an answer less than 3 minutes later when Austin Kelly connected with Austin Breland from 18-yards out to make the tally 10-7. That scoring play was set up by a 27-yard reception to Terrel Wayne White.
The Cardinals trailed by 3 points at the break. Brighton never was able to take the lead because of the play of Millington defenders like Claude Johnson, Thomas Daniels, Dante Pitts, Deadrick Payton, Paul Robinson and Patrick Macon Jr.
Macon had two sacks in the game including a 9-yard loss in the fourth quarter. The Millington defense kept Brighton in neutral and the Trojans’ special teams helped ice the game.
Pressure forced a bad Brighton punt giving the Trojans the ball on the 12-yard line late in the third quarter. Millington capitalized on the great field position a few plays later with a Keno Taylor 2-yard TD run to make the score 17-7.
In the fourth quarter Bell used his maturity and punting skills to keep Millington in favorable field position.
Speaking of field position, the Cardinals faced a first down and 78 yards to go in the fourth quarter because of several penalty calls.
The final scoring play of the night came courtesy of Bell’s foot with a 24-yard field goal with 34 seconds remaining.
The Cardinals have a bye this Friday before taking on the Covington Chargers Sept. 12. The Trojans will welcome the Cordova Wolves to town this Friday for a District 14-3A match up and 7 p.m. kickoff.
