By Jerry Lindsey
Roscoe Eades Stadium in Sterling hosted the Morrison Ponies and Newman Central Catholic Shooting Stars fresh-soph football game with fall like temperatures and a rivalry that exists everytime these football programs meets.
Both sidelines chose to use the ground game as only three passes were thrown all night with one completion. The ‘grind it out’ strategies worked in Newman’s favor as they collected 309 yards to Morrison’s 219 yards.
The Ponies received their first possession with Nathan Mickley starting as the third quarterback to start in three games. They needed only three minutes to match the opening scoring drive by Newman as they covered 70 yards with Keagan Anderson scoring on a 23 yard scamper. Anderson also broke a 17 yarder and Jacob Schlegel a 19 yarder on the drive that ended with a Riley Wilkens extra point kick and a 7-6 lead to end the quarter.
The Shooting Stars scored on both second quarter possessions on first and 1 situations at the one foot line. The Ponies only drive of the quarter ended with a 1 yard dive by Riley Wilkens to wrap up a 65 yard drive featuring runs by Schlegel of 15 and 8, Anderson of 8 and 6 and Wilkens of 6,7,4 and the 1 yard score. Wilkens extra point gave the Ponies a brief 14-12 lead with 4:02 left in the half. Newman used all of the remaining clock to grind out a 64 yard scoring drive that ended with a 1 yard score by Nick Clevenger with 8.1 left in the half. Newman took an 18-14 advantage into the halftime intermission. Newman edged the Ponies in rushing yardage in the half 182 to 157.
The third quarter changed the tone of the game as Morrison’s offense could only generate 9 yards of total offense which included an 8 yard pass completion from Mickley to Wade Hackbarth in their 3 minutes and 44 seconds of possession. The remainder of the quarter was owned by the Stars on a 65 yard drive that ended with a 22 yard score by Brody Ivey to up the score after three quarters to 26-14.
Newman scored early in the final quarter on a 4 yard plunge by DJ Johnson and the spread moved to 33-14 with 8:11 left in the game. The Ponies rallied a final 69 yard drive ending in a 9 yard end run by Schlegel that formed the final 33-20 score.
Morrison 7 – 7- 0 – 6 = 20
Newman 6 – 12 – 8 – 7 = 33
Rushing: Morrison 219 yards ( Schlegel = 115, Anderson = 52, Wilkens = 48)
Newman 309 yards