2026 TSSAA Football Brighton @ Millington

FOOTBALL: Brighton 34, Millington 13 MUSIC BY: Chad Blunt With things trending upward at Millington, the Trojans entered Friday night ready to celebrate the Class of 2027 on the turf of Mooney Boswell Field. Area rivals the Brighton Cardinals came to town ready to play spoilers and ruin the festivities in order to build momentum for a November postseason run. Head Coach Keith Setler’s Cardinals took a couple of haymakers from the Trojans early on and punched back in a big way to eventually prevail 34-13. “That’s the plan, I hasten to say that we stumbled last week because we had a really good game plan last week,” Setler reflected on the previous 42-7 defeat to Munford. “But anytime you have four turnovers in the first half, no team in America is supposed to win that game. But the game plan was solid.”Putting the Munford game in the rearview mirror, the next game was against a Millington team coming off back-to-back wins over Craigmont and Fayette-Ware. “We just wanted to execute that same game plan this week and get on the board against a good team,” Setler said. “I don’t care what the record is, they have some good players over there. John Thomas is a football player. There’s some other dudes over there like Baron Martin Jr. “I said, ‘Guys don’t look at the record,’” he continued. “‘We have to come and play today.’ We wanted to get some momentum going into an important Region game next week. That region game next week  where we play next week. Whether we’re playing the No. 1 seed or the No. 2 seed.” Brighton (4-5) faces the Overton Wolverines Thursday night in the regular season finale and will host its Senior Night trying to earn a No. 3 seed going into the Class 5A playoffs. Meanwhile the Trojans head to Halle Stadium to close out the 2026 regular season on Thursday night against the Ridgeway Roadrunners with a playoff berth on the line. The Trojans (2-7) traded fumbles with the Cardinals early in the first quarter. Then Millington’s defense stopped Brighton’s first drive coming off the turnover. The Trojans capitalized on their fumble driving down the field leading to a Noah Barrentine 12-yard touchdown run. Millington’s 7-0 lead was brief with the Cardinals using a Jakarion Burrell 38-yard touchdown run to answer back. Burrell added the two-point conversion to give the Cardinals an 8-7 advantage. Brighton jumped ahead 16-7 late in the first quarter when quarterback Michael Gilliland tossed a 12-yard touchdown pass to tight end Brett Cothran. The Trojans started the second quarter with some fireworks. Signal caller Cole Hawkins dropped back and fired a pass over the middle hitting Christian “CJ” Green in stride. Green broke a couple of tackles on his way to the end zone for the 49-yard touchdown.