John Milledge beats Gatewood for first GISA title
The John Milledge Trojans felt like they finally got over the hump last week with a win in the GISA Class 3A semifinals.
On Friday, the Trojans climbed to the top of the mountain.
John Milledge played in the GISA Class 3A championship game for the first time Friday at Mercer’s Five Star Stadium after losing in the semifinal round the previous four seasons. The Trojans (14-0) made the most of their initial trip to the championship game with a 17-0 win over the Gators, who end their season at 11-3.
Two of Gatewood’s losses came to John Milledge, which won the regular-season meeting 17-10.
Two who mattered
Noah Lavender: The Trojans’ senior running back had 35 carries for 202 yards and scored the final touchdown from 1 yard out with 1:05 to play. Lavender had 15 carries for 87 yards in the first half and 20 carries for 115 yards in the second half.
The Trojans’ defense: John Milledge’s defense was strong throughout and held Gatewood’s potent running game in check. The Gators had 32 carries for 100 yards and only 17 yards passing. Gatewood had 17 carries for zero yards in the second half and threw two interceptions — one in each half.
Observations
Setting the tone: John Milledge opened the game with a 22-play drive and converted four fourth-down situations on the drive, including a fake punt. The Trojans didn’t score on the drive because a fake field goal failed, but they still set a dominant tone. Gatewood ran four plays in the first quarter and finished with 41, while John Milledge ran 60.
Strong up front: The Trojans finished with 45 carries for 226 yards behind their strong offensive line. The Trojans’ defense forced seven negative plays from the Gators, including five in the second half.
Worth mentioning
Confidence in the kicker: John Milledge place-kicker Riley Denton attempted four field goals and only hit one from 32 yards for a 10-0 lead early in the fourth quarter. That said, Denton had two tries from 52 yards that weren’t far off and a 42-yarder that was blocked.
They said it
John Milledge head coach J.T. Wall: “It’s like every other coach says, right now you can’t describe it. It’s a great feeling. A lot of that emotion hasn’t really come over me yet. These guys are unbelievable.”
Wall on his defense: “You can’t say enough about how well the defense played. We challenged these guys all week to be the more physical team, and they were on both sides of the ball. I felt like we came out and ran the ball real well, and the defense played lights out.”
Wall on the first drive: “Faked a field goal. Faked a punt. We were throwing everything at them. We ran a hook-and-lateral on the first play, but we incompleted it, but it was there. We weren’t going to leave anything left. We were going to try to use it all.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2016 at 11:24 PM with the headline "John Milledge beats Gatewood for first GISA title."