Early spurt spurs Morris past Burlington Central

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MORRIS -- Every football coach wants his team to set the tone early in a game.

Morris High School coach George Dergo saw his Redskins do just that Friday night, as they jumped out to a 20-0 lead in the first quarter en route to a 41-12 win over Burlington Central in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs.

"We were pretty focused in practice all week," Morris wide receiver/defensive back Zach Thetard said. "The coaches told us that we have to pick it up in practice, pick it up watching films and pick it up in the game."

Not only did Thetard pick it up, he picked it off.

The Redskins (8-2) took the opening kickoff and drove 62 yards in just three plays. Drew Hanson hit Stephen Wagner with a 34-yard pass, then Adam Tondini went 23 yards for a touchdown, dragging a Burlington Central defender the final five yards into the end zone. The Morris defense then forced a punt and the Redskins took over at their own 8. Hanson tried a deep pass toward Thetard, but the Rockets' Tommy Gastt intercepted it at the Morris 33.

Again, the stingy Morris defense held tight, setting up 3rd-and-8. Burlington Central quarterback Dan Hagberg threw toward the flat, but Thetard was there in step in front of it and there was nothing but green ahead of him. He raced 77 yards for a touchdown and a 13-0 Redskin lead with 6:08 to go in the first quarter.

"I saw their quarterback rolling out and I thought he was going to run with it," Thetard said. "I was kind of stalking behind the receiver and when he threw it, I just cut in front of him. There was only the quarterback to beat, and one of my guys buried him.

"It's good for us to get a game in the playoffs under our belt."

The Morris domination continued, as the Redskins forced another punt and took over on their own 16. After an incompletion, Tondini (12 carries, 175 yards) broke free for a 64-yard gain. After Wagner was stopped for a 4-yard loss, he took a pitch to the right and followed a decleating block from Ben Olson into the end zone from 24 yards out. David Balzer's kick gave Morris a 20-0 lead.

On the ensuing kickoff, the ball bounced off of Burlington Central's Drew Halstead and into the air. Halstead grabbed it and returned it 34 yards to the Morris 4. Hagberg then carried the ball near the goal line and fumbled, but teammate Matt VanAcker recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown.

Morris responded with another scoring drive, with Hanson doing the scoring honors from 2 yards out.

Late in the first half, Burlington recovered a Morris fumble at the 35 and finally scored on a 5-yard run by Hagberg to make it 27-12 at halftime.

"Burlington Central is a good team," Dergo said. "We were pretty sharp early on, but we kind of relaxed a little bit. That's happened to us a few times this year.

"Our defense was real solid tonight. They scored on a short field twice, but other than that, we really held them down."

Indeed, the Redskins limited the Rockets to 82 yards of offense.

After forcing a punt to start the second half, Morris drove 83 yards on 12 plays, with Tondini shaking off two tacklers in the backfield and somehow keeping his feet to score from 6 yards out.

Thetard capped the scoring late in the third quarter by catching a 27-yard TD pass from Hanson, who finished 7-of-14 for 138 yards.

"At halftime, the coaches told us not to underestimate this team," Thetard said. "We came out focused after halftime and played a good second half."

Any attempts by Burlington to come back were thwarted by fumbles, as Morris got recoveries from Eric Miller and Ryan Clauson.

"We did a good job of setting the tone early and then we were able to pound it at them late," Dergo said. "It's good for us to get a game in. Now we understand what the playoffs are about. It's going to get tougher and tougher every week from here on out."

The Redskins will go on the road next week to play the winner of today's game between Rochelle (6-3) and Chicago Harper (8-1).