GISA title time: John Milledge hasn't forgotten its last loss - to this opponent in this game

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          When John Milledge lines up for the 2021 season, the Trojans will have about four starters back from 2020. Gone will be 21 seniors.

          Some might jump on that as the end of a run, hoping the Trojans are finally – finally – going through some rebuilding instead of reloading.

          And so many teams will anticipated the possibility of payback.

          For once, though, John Milledge knows that feeling, and the Trojans may spend Friday afternoon and night with some double vision, seeing what’s actually in front of them as well as “48-0”.

          That’s the score of the last time John Milledge and Frederica met in the GISA Class 3A title game, Nov. 30, 2018.

          “This week wasn’t hard to get jacked up for,” JMA head coach J.T. Wall said. “It’s the state championship.

          “But you’re also playing a team that was the last team to beat you. They beat us on the biggest stage, and 48-0.

          “They’ll never forget that.”

          So it’s safe to bet the Trojans’ dream is to win 49-0 Friday night when they take on the Knights at Mercer’s Five Star Stadium. Of course, just winning is the goal, but since that whipping two years ago, John Milledge (10-0) was won five games by 48 points or more, and had 14 shutouts along the way.

          One of them? A 50-0 win at home on Nov. 1, 2019 over Frederica, a game Wall has tried to eliminate from his team’s memory.

          That win was one of five straight shutouts en route to the state championship, which was a 62-19 over 10-2 Valwood.

          Frederica enters at 8-3, having lost to GHSA Class A Private Calvary Day 27-7, Tiftarea 21-18 (consecutive weeks in September), and Bulloch Academy 2o-16 at the end of October.

          The Knights don’t have the parade of Division I talent this years as in 2018, when they sent three players to Auburn alone. But freshman running back Jordan Triplett will start getting that attention. He has 1,704 yards and 21 touchdowns on 202 carries.

          Where he gets the ball is often a good guess, Frederica and head coach Brandon Derrick being something of a formation team that gives defenses all sorts of different looks before usually running, to the tune of 2,306 yards. But QB Thomas Veal has completed 60.3 percent of his 121 pass attempts for 957 yards, nine TDs and seven interceptions.

          “We’ve covered every formation we can cover,” Wall said. “And I’m sure he’ll come out with something we haven’t.

          John Milledge may have riled up the Knights and the staff two years ago when the Trojans beat Frederica in St. Simons 14-13 in overtime barely a month for the title rematch.

          “That’s one of those games you play 10 times, you might win one of ‘em,” Wall said of his young 2018 Trojans he admits overachieved. “We kind of feared going into that (title) game that we might’ve showed our hand on how we could win he game, the only way we won it.

          “They were ready for us. I swear (Derrick) had our office bugged.”

          Everything the Trojans’ staff expected in that first game that the Knights didn’t show or do made an appearance in the championship game. Not that the Trojans helped themselves much. They drove to the red zone on their first possession of the game.

          “We had a fake field called and dialed up,” Wall said. “The guy who was supposed to run the fake field goal didn’t hear the call.”
          Uh oh.

          “That was the beginning of a very bad night,” said Wall, who is 111-14 in his 10th season at JMA, his alma mater. “It snowballed.”

          The Trojans don’t have a statistical home-run hitter, but a lot of players who just produce. Six backs have at least 35 carries, and seven have at least two rushing touchdowns.

          Versatile Patrick McDonel leads with 584 yards and 12 touchdowns, heading a run attack of 2,446 yards and 38 touchdowns in 10 game. Senior quarterback Grayson Hopkins has competed 67.4 percent of his 89 passes for 953 yards and 16 touchdowns – six to Taylor Dixon and five to Marcus Prestwood – with two interceptions.

          Je’mazin Roberts and Kevin Kitchens  along with Carson Dyer lead a defense that’s allowed 2.7 points a game.

          Missing all season is who was going to be the focal point, and attendance draw, running back Amaad Foston. The Virginia commit suffered a preseason injury and hasn’t played. Wall has done some verbal dancing as to when Foston might be cleared, and by who.

          He kept that going when the topic of Foston’s season debut coming in a championship game was mentioned, pretty much just chuckling. A year ago on the Five Star field, Foston went for a staggering 423 yards and eight touchdowns to cap off a season of 2,772 yards and 46 – forty six – rushing touchdowns.

          Still, the Trojans haven’t missed a beat, getting one more point a game – albeit in a couple fewer games – and allowing less than last year’s 5.4 points a game.

          John Milledge’s average margin of 40.10 is a program record, topping last year’s 35.92 points. That leads to another one of those “all-time” inquiries.

          “This is probably the best group we’ve ever had,” Wall said, before clarifying things. “We gotta take care of business (Friday) night before we put them in that category, in my mind. They’ve got that chance to be up there.”