Millwood comes back to beat Crusaders

DEL CITY — A promising start turned nearly disastrous for Class 2A’s top-ranked Millwood on Friday.

The Falcons had to climb their way out of a 12-point, first-quarter deficit on the road at Christian Heritage Academy, eventually cruising to a 44-18 win to improve to 5-0 on the season.

“We got a W, we got a W, and that’s all that matters, is that we got a W,” Millwood coach Darwin Franklin said. “We’re ecstatic about that. I’m ecstatic about going through a tough game and the team coming together and getting a win.”

Momentum was all Millwood’s after Christian Heritage quarterback Camden Cargill threw an interception on the second play of the game, giving the Falcons the ball deep in Crusader territory.

The Falcon offense sputtered on its first series, however, and the CHA defense forced a fumble on fourth-and-1 at the Crusaders’ 26-yard line to give the ball back to Cargill.

One play later, CHA receiver Hutch Hendrickson flew to the end zone on a 68-yard touchdown reception to put the Crusaders on the board first.

Millwood gave up one more touchdown to go down 12-0, and a sense of urgency washed over Montrell Wilson.

“Just as an offense, we got to go down and score quickly and the defense (has) to come back and get a stop,” Wilson said of his mindset when his team trailed early.

And that’s exactly what Millwood did.

The quarterback threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to Kittakone Sirsombath, and from there, the Falcons took off in the first half, going up 28-12 by halftime.

Millwood picked up right where it left off in the third quarter and scored on its first drive via a Marcus Major 16-yard touchdown run, his second of three scores on the night.

The defense continued to put pressure on Cargill, picking off the quarterback three times by night’s end and made a big statement on both sides of the ball.

“They had a pretty good quarterback over there, and he was dangerous today,” Wilson said. “We put up a big statement.”