Morgan has made plenty of statements on the way to a dominant start this season, none more emphatic than a 42-3 rout of rival and 6-1 Grantsville Friday night.
Versatile offensive weapon Lincoln Gilson scored three touchdowns and Jake Hansen housed an 80-yard pick six to firmly entrench the Trojans at the top of 3A North with an 8-0 overall record.
“That’s one thing about playing Grantsville, you know they’re always going to play hard, so you’ve always got to play hard,” Morgan coach Jared Barlow said. “It was good to see that emotion.”
Morgan gifted Grantsville its only points of the game on a questionable fake punt call deep in their own territory, leading to a 35-yard Brent Knickerbocker field goal with 10:39 in the first quarter.
Then, the Trojans woke up. Morgan took the lead in just six plays on a Beck Sheffield 10-yard bullet to the back corner of the end zone to Boston Zack.
Morgan’s defense then grabbed an interception from Grantsville’s backup quarterback on the ensuing third down, a tough break after starter Dallan Van Vliet was forced off the field for one play after his helmet was knocked off.
The Trojans went back to work and leaned on Gilson’s versatility in both the pass and run game. The senior stormed through the gut of Grantsville’s defense to make it 14-3 with 6:04 left in the first quarter on a 12-yard scoring carry.
“He’s kind of like a safety blanket,” Barlow said. “When you have somebody like that on offense, you know that you can go to him, but it opens things up for other guys as well.”
Grantsville’s defense did its part in the first half, forcing two Sheffield interceptions and recovering two Morgan fumbles, but the Cowboys offense failed to capitalize while trying to stave off Morgan’s aggressive blitz and pass rush timing.
Van Vliet tossed an overthrown pick to Hansen while under pressure to set up a 12-play offensive march punctuated by Gilson’s second first-half rushing touchdown to make it 21-3.
“One thing we stressed this year is just getting the ball into playmakers’ hands,” Gilson said. “Make the guy miss and score.”
The teams exchanged turnovers on a Morgan fumble and Van Vliet interception before the Trojans went back to the night’s strategy of stretching the Cowboys laterally from sideline to sideline until they broke again, Gilson’s gliding for his third score on a jet sweep for the 28-3 lead at halftime.
“Whatever we can do to motion and get the defense in something that we want, we’ll run at them all day,” Gilson said. “We’ve got so many weapons, we can go anywhere, outside or inside.”
Morgan made Grantsville pay on another Van Vliet overthrow in the third quarter. Hansen snatched his second pick and weaved his way across the field for the 80-yard interception return home run to put the game firmly out of reach, 35-3, with 48 seconds until the fourth quarter.
After the first pick six of his high school football career, Hansen said the Morgan secondary is a “no fly zone” and that each level of the defense complements the other from pressure to tackling to turnovers.
“I wasn’t expecting to go all the way, but shout out to my blockers, I couldn’t have done it without them,” Hansen said. “When I made that cutback, they wiped them out. I owe them all a big one.”
Morgan added a final touchdown with a 1-yard Krew Galbraith scoring dive for the 42-3 margin with 4:42 left in the game.
Barlow complimented the focus of his team to dial in week after week, a clear strength of this Trojans team that’s outscored opponents 270-10 in the last five games.
“It’s not about playing Grantsville, it’s not about playing Crimson Cliffs, it’s about how good can we be,” Barlow said. “Focus on us and everything else should take care of itself.”