John Milledge Academy (JMA) saw its hopes for an undefeated season dashed last Friday night in Athens where the Athens Academy (ACAD) Spartans handed the Trojans a 28-14 loss, their first of the 2025 season.
The Trojans struggled to find any offense in the first half and found themselves down 14-0 after two quarters of play.
On the Spartans’ first possession of the second half, they quickly took control by extending ACAD’s lead to 21-0 with a 39-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Chap Chapman to wide receiver Keyon Standifer.
Spartans running back Zay Prince later added to the lead a one-yard rushing score after a long drive.
JMA answered back immediately, however, with Bryce McDonel returning the ensuing kickoff 85 yards for the Trojans’ first touchdown of the night. JMA would score only once more, however, when Lewis Cheney connected with an eight-yard touchdown pass to Parker Soltay.
JMA followed up with a successful two-point conversion to reach the 28-14 final score at Slaughter Field.
“There are a lot of things we gotta’ clean up. A pretty sloppy game,” is how JMA head coach J.T. Wall summed up the game.
“Tackling in the open field; offensively, self-inflicted wounds; every time we made a play, we would make a mistake; and it never was the same guy, always somebody different,” Wall said. “We did a good job of beating ourselves tonight.”
Despite the loss, Wall added that he remains confident his players will learn from their mistakes and will return to being successful.
“It was definitely a learning experience,” he said. “We’ve got to learn from this (game) and move on. Take the positives and keep working on them and take the negatives and improve.”
JMA will travel this Friday to face undefeated Bulloch Academy in Statesboro, where the Trojans hope to earn a bounce-back win over the Gators. who rely heavily on their powerful running game led by running back Danye Garvin who is currently averaging 113.0 rushing yards per game. Kickoff vs Bulloch will be at 7:30 p.m. this Friday in Statesboro.