For the fourth straight game this preseason, Morgan challenged itself against a higher-classification team on Thursday night, and in the process enjoyed arguably its best performance to date.
Facing 5A’s Bountiful, which was coming off back-to-back wins against Davis County 6A teams, Morgan took control in the second quarter with a dominant defensive performance as it cruised to the 37-14 victory over the visiting Redhawks.
“We were excited to play. Bountiful’s a quality program, a really good program. We knew it was going to be a battle, so we just tried to prepare ourselves mentally for a tough fight,” said Morgan coach Jared Barlow.
Morgan has now won straight games against Sky View, Park City and Bountiful since a difficult season-opening loss to Ridgeline.
Owen Gilson tossed a pair of TD passes in the win for Morgan, both to Owen Belliston, while George Thurston, Rhett Larsen and Miles Syndenham all added rushing TDs for the Trojans.
“I know as a defensive coach, it’s difficult to plan for a team that has multiple options. If you can narrow your options down to one or two kids, it’s easier to game plan, so offensively, we try to make it difficult on the defense so the more kids that we can get involved, the better the game plan’s going to go,” Barlow said.
Defensively, Morgan forced three turnovers and added two turnovers on downs in its third straight dominant defensive performance.
All three turnovers gave Morgan’s offense very short fields, with starting field positions at the 25, 5 and 14-yard line respectively.
All three also came against Bountiful’s backup quarterback.
After Bountiful starter Hudson Malmrose led his team on a quick scoring drive to open the game — connecting with Easton Lowe on a 10-yard TD pass — he was sacked and injured his right shoulder on the first play of Bountiful’s second offense possession.
Malmrose did not return, and Bountiful’s coaches used three different quarterbacks — and a wildcat jumbo package — to try to find a spark offensively without Malmrose.
The Redhawks were mildly productive in the second half after handing the reigns to sophomore Cruz Carroll, but by then the game was out of reach.
Barlow said the defensive game plan didn’t change with the QB change, but the entire Morgan coaching staff new it narrowed Bountiful’s play book.
“We were just preparing them to understand these are the plays that we need to make sure that we take care of,” Barlow said.
Two plays after Malmrose exited, Morgan’s Bridge Schiffman intercepted a third-and-10 pass, setting his offense up with great field position.
Four plays later, Larsen marched into the end zone from two yards out, tying the game at 7-7 with 4:02 left in the first quarter.
Midway through the second quarter, Morgan pushed the lead to 14-7 on a Thurston 9-yard run. Morgan’s defense then came up with a huge play on Bountiful’s ensuing possession that effectively swung momentum permanently.
The Trojans came up with a strip sack, taking over possession at the 5-yard line, with Gilson connecting with Belliston one play later for the 21-7 halftime lead.
“Any time you can change the momentum defensively and get our offense back on the field, that’s always a good thing,” Barlow said.
The Trojans opened the second half with a nearly identical defensive play, this time settling for a field goal that still stretched the lead to 24-7.
Bountiful kept things interesting by cutting the deficit to 24-14 with a third-quarter TD pass from Carroll to Lowe at the 5:22 mark of the third quarter, but Morgan answered right back with a nine-play, 70-yard drive to seal the win.
Morgan has one more preseason game on the road at Faith Lutheran, Nev. (1-2) next Friday before diving into region play. Barlow said his team is still benefitting from the wake-up call it got in the first half of the 42-28 loss to Ridgeline in Week 1.
“That’s one of the reasons we like to play these games. It shows us early what we need to do, kind of our deficiencies,” Barlow said. “One of the things we talked about at halftime in the Ridgeline game is just the fact we need to play with a little more heart.
“They just came out and ran down our throats. They were just more physical than us, more energy than us, so that was one of the things that we had to work on.”