Morgan County brought the heat in its road matchup against Rutland on Oct. 3.
The Dogs dominated the Hurricanes 60-27, improving to 7-0 overall and 2-0 in the region.
Morgan County head coach Clint Jenkins thought his offense was successful in moving the football down the field. He credited his offensive staff for effective clock management, which helped the Dogs end the first half with a 27-6 lead.
“I thought we did a good job of getting points and managing the time at the end of the first half,” Jenkins said. “We had a really nice drive right before the end of the half, where we ended up scoring and leaving no time on the clock.”
Jenkins said that the offense was able to “score when they needed to,” but struggled by “putting themselves in bad situations at times,” such as turning the ball over or "giving up big plays.”
Morgan County attempted a balanced offensive attack to counter Rutland’s defense. The Dogs scored nine touchdowns on offense and totaled 536 yards overall against the ‘Canes. Their running game was the strength, though, as they gained 328 yards on the ground in the lopsided win.
Senior running back Christian Monfort highlighted the run game, leading with 238 yards on 28 carries and three touchdowns. The West Georgia commit averaged 8.5 yards per carry this past week.
Senior quarterback Davis Strickland completed 14 of 22 passes for 208 yards and four touchdowns.
Senior receiver Ty Tillery led in receiving with five catches for 100 yards and two touchdowns, followed by senior tight end Drew Ainslie, who caught three passes for 42 yards, with two resulting in scores.
Tillery also had a big night on defense, with five total tackles and an interception.
Ainslie was named Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts.
“Drew definitely played his best game and came up big for us with some major catches,” Jenkins said. “As far as offensive production at tight end, this was definitely one we’ve been waiting on for him.”
Jenkins was pleased to see his defense force several turnovers, including the interception by Tillery and another by senior defensive back Makai Owens. However, he wasn’t satisfied with how Rutland had multiple “explosive” plays, and he knows The Dogs will need to limit those in the future.
“One of the big things defensively, [is that] we’ve just got to do a little bit of a better job, and we lost the edge a couple of times,” Jenkins said. We were outrun a couple of times and had a couple of deep balls go over our heads; for the most part, they were an explosive type of team and had a couple of big plays on us, but as a defense, we’ve got to minimize that.”
Overall, Jenkins believes it was a great night for the team and sees his players improving each week. The Dogs now head into a bye week and are preparing for their Oct. 17 region game on the road against Jackson.
Jenkins hopes his team can get off to another fast start against the Red Devils.
“I would say [that Jackson is] one of the better teams in the region, and so we’ve got to get in there; it’s good to get an early start,” Jenkins said. “We’re going to get some time off this week, and then we’ll be back in game week mode next week.”