Trojans readying for Thursday night road battle

Published 4:13 pm Tuesday, August 20, 2024

John Milledge football, owner of a winning streak that surpassed 60 games last season, is now looking to avoid a three-game losing skid.

JMA (0-1) dropped its season opener to Bethlehem Christian Friday, losing 28-14. That coupled with last year’s state championship loss to Valwood gave the Trojans their first back-to-back losses since 2013.

Head coach JT Wall called it “unfamiliar territory” heading into week two.

“It’s kind of a perfect storm with having a young team, not having a full scrimmage, and not really getting full-speed looks,” Wall said, employing the same “perfect storm” metaphor the newspaper used in the Bethlehem game recap. “I feel like the effort was there and the kids played hard. They didn’t lay down. We had a chance to come back and win it late.”

Any chance of a comeback was dashed away when BCA running back Zeke Clanton zipped 63 yards through the Trojan defense to put his team back up two scores late.

“The guys are OK,” Wall said on how his players are responding to the loss. “Nobody’s happy to lose, but they understand they’ve got to keep working. I feel like we’re better today than we were this time last week. It’s a long season, though the schedule doesn’t get any easier. Whether you win or lose, I don’t think you can start looking ahead either. You’ve got to focus on this week and see what you can do to scratch out a W.”

The opportunity to avoid a three-game losing slide comes Thursday when the Trojans travel to Martinez to face Augusta Christian, a school that actually competes as part of the South Carolina private school league.

Thursday night kickoffs aren’t unheard of for JMA, but they are uncommon. Wall likes to schedule his preseason scrimmages two Thursdays before the season opener, and the last two times the Trojans played for a state championship were Thursdays. Then there’s the occasional Friday nighter that gets pushed up a day due to threat of inclement weather.

But as far as scheduled regular season Thursday games, those don’t happen often. There was a time when John Milledge and Gatewood held their annual “Battle of the Lakes” rivalry matchup on a Thursday to open the season in what was a big gate for both schools. The Thursday night tradition eventually stopped, and now the schools don’t play one another at all as JMA was absolutely dominating those last few years they met.

Wall explained how this Thursday’s contest against Augusta Christian came to be.

“Augusta Christian had a school conflict on Friday, so they were penciled in to play on a Thursday this week,” he said. “I was looking for one more game. Luckily we found this one late. In the situation we were in as far as finding people to play, you’ve got to take what you can get.”

Like the Trojans, the AC Lions are coming off a season-opening loss at the hands of Lincoln County. The LC Red Devils ran all over the Lion defense, totaling 274 yards on 26 carries en route to a 37-0 victory in Lincolnton.

Augusta Christian will be looking for its first points of the season this week, and Wall says the team has the speed to do it. Defensive alignment, something the JMA head coach said his team did “OK, not great” at last week, and knowing assignments will play a big part in whether or not the Trojans are able to hold the Lions to minimal output.

John Milledge has a 7-5 edge against Augusta Christian all-time, though the teams have not seen one another since 2003. The Lions’ football field holds a little history for Wall as a player. It’s where he and the 1996 Trojans secured their second consecutive region championship in a 48-14 final score. The head coach hopes for a similar outcome in Martinez with Thursday night’s 7:30 p.m. kickoff.