It sure didn’t look or sound like a normal Collierville football night at Herman Osteen Field Friday night. Prior to the kick-off, even the tailgaters were commenting on the sparse pre-game crowd and the lack of excitement in the air. Some blamed it on the opening weekend of deer season…others, just wondered.

The muted pre-game atmosphere appeared to carry-over into the stadium as the normally noisy Dragon faithful brought very little energy to game. It appeared to spill over onto the field of play.

It took five different possessions and nearly 9 minutes of football before either team could earn a first down in this hard-fought 5A play-off game. Finally, Dragon senior Noel Moyes broke the offensive drought with a first down carry with 3:58 left in the opening quarter. The Dragon drive stalled at the Trojan 35 yd line and the ball was turned over on downs.

The Millington offense took over and immediately began pounding on the Dragons with a quick-hitting ground attack that featured power sweeps and inside traps. The Trojans notched three first downs in seven plays and scored the first touchdown of the night from 23 yards out on an inside trap play with 11:20 left in the 2nd quarter.

The Dragon offense put together a ten play drive down to the Trojan 17 yard line where on third and ll, a dropped pass forced a Dragon field goal attempt. The sure-footed Lane Maynard punched it through and the Dragons had narrowed the score to 7-3.

The Trojans then put together a sustained drive down to the Dragon 17 yard line where they were forced into a field goal attempt that missed to the right. Taking over at the 20, the Dragons looked like they would run out the clock on the half. On third down, Noel Moyes hit a big gainer out to the 42 yard line and it looked like the Dragons may have an opportunity for some points before the half ended. Unfortunately, the half ended with a Jason Smith pass to Joe Crabtree down to the Trojan 14 yard line as time ran out.

Millington came out in the opening drive of the second half and scored on a 37 yard power sweep right to push their lead to 13-3 on the missed PAT. After trading possessions, the Dragons offense put together a well-orchestrated drive that was highlighted by Jason Smith’s pass to tight-end Grant Hall on a 24 yard gain. From the ten, Smith hit Noel Moyes for a touchdown strike and the Dragons elected to play for the 2 point conversion. Jason Smith promptly hit Brett Rogers in the left flat for the conversion and the Dragons had whittled the Trojan lead down to 13-11 with 3.2 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Trojans quickly answered the Dragon challenge. A big return put the ball at the Dragon 40 yard line and on second down the Trojans ran the power sweep left for 56 yard touchdown sprint to extend the lead to 20-11.

Chris Collins had a big return out to the 45 yard line and the Dragons put together another sustained drive culminating in Casey Shockey scoring from 6 yards out. Maynard’s PAT was good and the Trojan lead was down to 2 points, 20-18, with 8:14 left in the game.

Millington answered with a touchdown drive of their own that featured the only pass play of the night for the Trojans. Again, the Trojans called on their power sweep and they scored from 12 yards out. With 3:04 left to play, the Trojan lead stood at 27-18.

Realizing that the Dragons needed two quick scores, Millington sat on the passing routes. Facing third and ten, the Trojans intercepted the ball to shut the door on the Dragons’ hopes of moving to the second round of the play-offs.

Football is a game of blocking and tackling. On the night, Millington (8-3) did an extraordinary job of keeping the Dragon’s Jason Smith bottled up on defense while controlling both lines of scrimmage. The Trojans bested their season rushing average with two running backs notching 100+ yards each on the night.

The Collierville Dragons (8-3) completed another outstanding season that saw the young Dragons mature and exceed consensus expectations on the year. The Dragons completed the regular season with an 8-2 record and earning a second place finish in the tough Region 8-5A. The 2005 Dragons actually ended the season with a better regular season record than the 2004 Dragons who won the region last year.