Milan pulls away from JCM
MILAN – Milan overcame multiple miscues in their special teams play early Friday on its way to routing JCM by the score of 55-14 on homecoming night.
The Cougars surprised the Bulldogs on the opening kickoff, jumping on an onside kick, but were not able to get a drive started and had to punt.
Milan took the punt and drove down the field with Anthony Ballard scoring on a 42-yard run for the first score of the game with 5:40 left in the first quarter. The Bulldogs’ early special team issues continued, with JCM blocking the extra point.
JCM responded immediately with Shamar Givens breaking a few tackles on the ensuing kickoff returning it 96 yards for the touchdown and the 7-6 lead.
“We were disappointed with the kicking game,” Milan head coach Jeff Morris said. “We just were frozen on the onside kick. A lot of [special teams] is about effort. We didn’t come out with the right amount of effort.”
The Bulldogs were down, but they drove down the field, taking five minutes off the clock, scoring a touchdown on a 15-yard run from Landon Walker to put Milan up 13-7 with 56.3 seconds left in the first quarter, a lead that they did not relinquish.
“They have some athletic players,” Morris said. “We just had to settle down on both sides of the ball and run our offense.”
It looked like Milan would put some more points on the board on their next drive, but JCM’s Michael Jones intercepted a pass to stop the Bulldog drive.
Both teams were unable to have any sustained drives until Milan scored with 5:47 left before halftime. Ballard scored his second touchdown run of the night, this time from eight yards out to make the score 27-7.
The Bulldogs scored twice more before the half. The first came on a quarterback keeper from Walker on fourth down from 44 yards out, and the second was a 20-yard touchdown pass from Walker to Lamartez Brooks with 12.1 seconds remaining before halftime to make it 41-7.
After scoring on its first possession of the second half, Milan built a comfortable 48-7 lead over JCM, but the Cougars would score on a pass from Cougar quarterback Mondarious Long to Martvious Cole to cut the lead to 41-14.
Milan scored on their next drive, which would be their final score of the night when Kareem Williamson took it in from seven yards out for the touchdown with 1:46 left in the third quarter to make the score 55-14.