The Morgan County football team hosted the Greene County Tigers at Bill Corry Stadium last Friday for their second game of the regular season.
The Bulldogs defeated the Tigers 43-22, and head coach Clint Jenkins believed his team made some improvements from Week 1 to Week 2.
“The kids played well, and I thought we did some really good things in all three phases of the game,” Jenkins said. “I thought we were better between Game 1 and Game 2, so it was definitely a step in the right direction.”
The score didn’t indicate how well fought this contest was.
The game started off fast, and Greene County found themselves in the endzone first after just two minutes of play; however, after a couple of touchdown carries from senior running back Jacere Cooper, the Bulldogs led 14-6 at the end of the first quarter.
To start the second quarter, Tigers’ running back Malik West set up a Cristian Reyes’ field goal, which brought the contest to within five. Greene County made a couple of stops on defense, and sophomore Steve Miller found wideout Javaris Harris on a strike in the back-left corner of the endzone.
Down one, the Bulldogs used their next possession to drive all the way down the field, and Cooper’s second rushing touchdown of the night was capped off by a two-point conversion between junior Talan Fuller and wide receiver TJ Thompson.
The turning point of the contest came right before the first half ended.
With under two minutes to go, Greene County was held to a three-and-out, and Jenkins strategically used his timeouts so the Bulldogs could get the ball back. Senior athlete DJ Smith found Thompson on a deep pass down the middle to give the Bulldogs their fourth touchdown of the half.
Jenkins acknowledged how important it was for his team to head into the locker room up 29-15 instead of 22-15.
“As coaches, we have to make sure we do a good job of managing the game, and I didn’t feel like we did that against Social Circle,” Jenkins said. “It felt like we had an opportunity to score if we could get a stop and use our timeouts and make them punt. DJ threw the pass to TJ, and you just can’t script it any better than that.”
The second half started with another Cooper touchdown toward the beginning of the third quarter.
Cooper ended the day with 17 carries for 148 yards and four touchdowns and was complemented by fellow running back Jaydon Dorsey, who added 87 rushing yards on 16 attempts.
After the Bulldogs went up 36-15, the two teams played each other tightly for the rest of the contest. Senior cornerback Reggie Ross picked off Miller with six minutes left in the third quarter, but Harris returned the favor with an interception of his own a minute later.
Harris scored all of Greene County’s touchdowns and ended the game with a team-high 140 all-purpose yards.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, they were only able to find the end zone once in the second half and were outscored 14-7 during the last two quarters.
The 43-22 victory moved Morgan County to 2-0 on the season, and it will look to add another this upcoming Friday against the Jasper County Hurricanes.