Tondini's act back to speed

Morris' Adam Tondini beats Plainfield South's Dondre Adams and makes an over-the-shoulder touchdown catch in the Redskins' 28-7 victory on Friday night.
john patsch/staff photographer

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JOLIET -- The bum wheel is no more.

Adam Tondini, slow to recover from a high ankle sprain through the first six weeks of the high school football season, ran full speed ahead in Morris' 28-7 victory over Plainfield South on Friday night.

He looked like his old all-state self in a dominating performance on both sides of the ball that served notice Morris isn't about to give up on its postseason hopes without a fight.

Tondini, a 6-foot, 208-pound senior, scored three touchdowns. He rushed for 131 yards on 22 carries. He caught two passes for 43 yards.

And, on defense, he made like a cross between a linebacker and safety. He delivered a number blows. He broke up a couple of passes. And he intercepted a ball in the end zone to deny the Cougars of a consolation touchdown with less than 2 minutes remaining in the Southwest Prairie matchup.

"Yeah, I got hurt early in the season," Tondini said. "It started slowly getting better every week. And tonight it was not even bothering me any more."

Morris (3-4, 3-2) needed the victory to keep alive its hopes of advancing to the IHSA playoffs for the eighth straight season and 23rd time in 26 years. The 'Skins put the ball in Tondini's hands early and often as they ran the ball right at South in the first quarter and dominated time of possession, if not on the scoreboard.

The two teams remained locked in a scoreless draw until Tondini ripped off a 25-yard run, South's Luke Gundersen saving a touchdown with a hit on the sideline that knocked Tondini out of bounds at the 5. His twin brother Drew scored three plays later on a 1-yard plunge to put Morris on top 7-0.

And just when it looked like the two teams might go to halftime separated by only one touchdown, the Redskins struck again.

On a fourth-and-eight play from the Cougars' 37, Matt Hussey ran a quarterback draw from a spread formation. He gained 9 yards to the 28. Then, after a penalty moved the ball back to the 33, Hussey hooked up with Tondini on a 33-yard scoring strike, Tondini making a nifty over-the-shoulder grab in the back of the end zone with 1:27 left in the second quarter.

David Balzer kicked the extra point and Morris led 14-0.

"The game was kind of slow for a while," Tondini said. "Then, after that, we got big momentum going into halftime again. So, that was huge. Hussey is more of passing quarterback. But we thought, if we spread them out, right up the middle would be open. And it was.

"On the TD pass, we had a spread. Everybody ran 'flies' and he found the open guy. It was a good throw. It was right there. And I was behind the defender, so it wasn't that hard of a catch."

Tondini scored on runs of 7 and 25 yards in the third quarter as the Redskins extended their lead to 28-0 before South (4-3, 2-3) put any points on the board.

"We don't have a good record," Tondini said. "So, we said tonight starts the playoffs. We have to win from here on out to get in. Everybody stepped it up and we had a good game."

Hussey completed 8-of-14 passes for 126 yards. He also ran three times for 20 yards. Wideout Ryan Burling flashed some speed on the edge. He finished with four catches for 64 yards.

Morris' previous high point total was 24 in a 24-6 victory over Romeoville.

"We've been out of the end zone quite a bit," Redskins coach George Dergo said. "But it's coming together now. This is a pretty good team. We had to switch some stuff up here and there, get some guys healthy and get some confidence in what we're doing. We're still a little fish in a big pond, but these kids try hard and they've done a lot to get to where they're at.

"And this was just a good night for them. Things just clicked like we knew they could. The opportunities have been there the last three or four weeks. We're getting some of our line blocking down, and that's really helping us. And with Adam's injury -- that was a tough one. He was champ.

"Some kids -- they can come right back. In his position, it's hard to do. He was taking it easy a little bit. But tonight he let 'er all loose, and the line blocked well. Now, they're getting a little confidence. So, we'll see. We've got to get out there and play good football the next two weekends. If we don't win out, we're going home early.

"This team here is too good of a 5A team not to get in that playoff. But, you know, we've still got a good 7A (Oswego East) team and a good 8A team (Plainfield North) to go against. We stubbed our toes a couple of times early. This should have been the game actually that put is in with five wins. But that just didn't happen. Other teams outplayed us. So, we're fighting for our lives."

South (4-3, 3-2) finds itself in a similar position. The Cougars, with games remaining against Plainfield North and Oswego East, well could have to win out because of their low playoff point total. They twice moved inside the Morris 25 in the first half -- but came away with nothing. When they did finally score -- on Jeff Kohl's 17-yard pass to Gundersen with 7:30 remaining -- it was too little, too late.

Kohl completed 17-of-35 for 160 yards. Chris Brown rushed for 110 yards on 21 carries -- much of that total coming in the late going, a big South homecoming crowd hanging around only for the fireworks afterward.

"We came into the game knowing we had to score early and hopefully get them into a passing game," Briscoe said. "Then, we could get our skill guys out there and we do a nice job on the spread stuff. But they didn't have to. Once they got two touchdowns up on us, they were, 'OK, let's pound on 'em.' And that's what they do. That's our weakness, when teams come out and run right straight at us."