The Homecoming festivities have dominated the school week and now it was time to hit the gridiron and the temperature at the 5:30 kickoff is 92 degrees. The Ponies have anticipations of extending its win streak of four games and would like to make neighboring Fulton win number five.
Keegan Anderson returned the kickoff to the 44-yard line to open play, but two plays into the opening series Fulton’s Kaleb Schipper recovered a Pony fumble on the 33-yard line and the Steamers used the remainder of the quarter to grind out a 14-play series that set up a 4th and goal on the 4-yard line as the first quarter clock expired.
Fulton’s Ryan McDonnell was stopped at the 1- yard line to end the Futon scoring attempt and open the second quarter play and the Ponies started their march the other way. The Morrison 11 play drive featured two 9-yard carries by Anderson and Nick Allen and a 33-yard rumble by Brhenan Linke but ended when a fourth down failed on the 16-yard line. The Steamers’ struggled to move into safer territory as Calob Leu was thrown for a 2-yard loss followed by a 7-yard loss caused by Darby Cooper’s aggressive tackle. Cooper again caused an errant pass due to his pressure. Fulton Kicker, Calob Leu, took the fourth down snap and saw nothing by Izaac Shetler as the sophomore smothered Leu in the end zone for a 2-point safety. The balance of the first half included a Morrison drive ending when Steamer’s Ethan Long intercepted a Nathan Helms pass followed by Morrison’s Linke intercepting a Fulton’s Jake Pannell pass to send the teams to a halftime break with the Ponies leading 2-0.
The second half opened with Fulton receiving the kickoff at their own 20-yard line. Three running plays netted nine yards and again Leu dropped back to punt and his attempt was blocked by Shetler giving the Ponies ownership at the Fulton 38-yard line. The ensuing drive allowed seven different Ponies to carry the ball plus a roughing the passer penalty on Fulton set up a fourth and goal at the 5-yard line when Nathan Mickley carried tacklers into the end zone to up the Morrison advantage to 8-0. Nick Allen skirted right end to complete the 2-point conversion with 2:22 remaining in the third quarter. The quarter ended with the Morrison defense recording three consecutive tackles for negative yards by T.C. Ottens and Brhenan Linke.The two Fulton possessions of the third quarter totaled a negative 16 yards.
Following a Fulton punt, the Ponies started their next drive on the Futon 32-yard line and eight rushing plays put the Ponies in a third and goal situation on the 2-yard line. Helms attempt to hand off to his halfback was attacked by a swarm of Steamers and before the referee’s whistle stopped play Fulton’s Ethan Rash pulled the ball from the crowd and headed the other direction. He shed tacklers and was finally brought down at the Fulton 45-yard line. An unusual “targeting” penalty moved the line of scrimmage to the 29-yard line. Two passes netted a negative 1-yard when Ethan Long executed the second hand off on a halfback reverse and galloped into the Morrison end zone to make the score 10-6. The extra point failed and the Ponies needed to protect the ball for the remaining 3:47 to earn their fifth win of the season. The Ponies used the clock grinding out three first downs that featured an 8-yard run by Anderson and a 16-yarder by Nick Allen that led to two knee downs to end the homecoming effort. 10-6.