Morgan County used a fast offensive start in the first half to defeat rival Greene County 35-13 this past Friday.
The ‘Dogs (4-0) played with a sense of urgency to start the game, which was encouraging to their head coach.
“We knew [Greene] had a good football team, and we felt the margin of error was slim,” Clint Jenkins said. “We wanted to (score) on every opportunity we got. We didn’t want to beat ourselves, so every opportunity we had to take advantage of field position or finish a drive, that’s what we’ve been talking about. For the last couple of weeks, we’ve wanted to finish drives before the half, and to attack or score early.”
Morgan did exactly that, racing out to a 21-0 lead midway through the second quarter and never looked back.
Quarterback Davis Strickland put the Dogs on the scoreboard first with a one-yard rush through defenders for six with 6:55 left in the first period. They’d score again a few minutes later as Strickland sent Jaylen Elder in motion, pump-faked, and rolled to his right to find Christian Monfort through the air for a 28-yard score.
Morgan’s dominance continued in the second quarter when Strickland tossed a seven-yard touchdown pass to Brody O’Neal. The Dogs held a commanding 21-0 lead over Greene with 11:15 remaining in the first half.
In the first half, Morgan’s defense also dominated, helping the offense gain good field position on several drives. The second half was a different story, as the Tigers woke up and forced a few turnovers to make it a game.
Greene’s RJ Monford intercepted a pass from Strickland, intended for Drew Ainslie. The Tigers capitalized as quarterback Landon Garretson fired a 41-yard strike to Steve Miller, who was down at the Dogs’ 1-yard line.
Garretson snuck it on the next play, taking a chunk out of Morgan’s big lead with 10:20 left in the third quarter. On the next drive, Dogs’ tailback Alex Corrias fumbled, giving the Tigers the ball inside the five-yard line.
“Those are things we just cannot do,” Jenkins said of the turnovers. “We’ve done some of those things before.”
However, Greene couldn’t capitalize as it tried a fake punt on fourth down, and Morgan’s defense sniffed it out.
Later in the third quarter, Monfort, who finished the game with 182 rushing on 24 carries, found the end zone, making it a three-score game.
Ty Tillery caught a long pass from Strickland to set up Monfort’s short rushing touchdown. Ainslie then added insult to injury in the fourth quarter and caught a touchdown pass.
“I thought our defense did a really great job after all of that,” Jenkins said. “They helped minimize the damage. [Greene] scored one more [touchdown], but we felt pretty good defensively. And then offensively, we came back and finished some drives and scored a few times, which helped put the game away.”
Strickland passed for 185 yards, three touchdowns, and a pick. Elder also hauled in five passes for 52 yards. Tillery (3 catches, 45 yards) and Ainslie (3 catches, 43 yards, 1 touchdown) were productive in the passing game.
“Greene is a good football team, and that was a good win,” Jenkins said. “They’ve got great players, and that was a quality win.”