A chilly football night featured two of the better Fresh-Soph football teams in the Conference, as the Morrison Ponies visited the undefeated Amboy, IL, Rowboats on Friday October 16, 2015.
The Ponies will conclude their season on Friday, October 23, with a 5:30 p.m. game at E. M. “Bud” Cole Field against the Bureau Valley Storm.
Jacob Schlegel opened the action for Morrison by returning the kickoff to the 43-yard line to begin the Pony possession. Eleven rushing plays–highlighted by runs of 17 yards by Aaron Deter and ten yards by Nathan Bush–put the Ponies in a fourth-and-goal on the Amboy 5-yard line. Quarterback Reilly Dolan failed to connect with Grant Slater in the end zone, and the Rowboats took ownership on the 5-yard line. The Ponies were stingy with allowing rushing yardage, but they were caught short and allowed a 29-yard completion from quarterback Justin Hart to Reece Vaesssen. The quarter ended with the Rowboats sitting on their own 41-yard line with a second and six yards for a first down.
The third snap of the second quarter was a punt returned by Zach Cartwright to the Morrison 45-yard line. Morrison consumed the next 6:05 with a grinding rushing attack by Deter, Bush, and Tristan DeMay before Schlegel carried the last ten yards into the end zone. The Ponies had a 6-0 advantage with 2:45 remaining in the half. Two points were added when Dolan found Britt Ottens in the end zone, to move the score to 8-0. Each team had additional possessions but couldn’t generate any offense, so the half ended with an 8-0 score favoring the Ponies. The Pony defense had held the Rowboats to only 12 rushing yards and the one 29-yard pass completion, while they generated 119 yards on the ground. But the second half would be played without middle linebacker and fullback Aaron Deter, who had suffered a knee injury and would not return to action.
The third quarter moved quickly, because neither offense could generate much. The quarter ended with the Morrison in possession on the Amboy 40-yard line. The Ponies recorded a total of 25 yards and the Rowboats a total of 33 yards, as defenses remained strong.
Bush was forced to carry the extra load with teammate Deter sidelined. He responded with four strong runs to move the ball to the Amboy 10-yard line. Cartwright finished the drive with a 10-yard rush to up the score to 14-0. Schlegel scored the two-point conversion, and with 6:49 remaining the Ponies led 16-0. The Rowboat retained the ball off the kick off at their 41-yard line. Grant Abell pressured the quarterback to throw an incompletion and Britt Ottens nailed Travis Earnes for a 6-yard loss. This forced the Rowboats to punt the ball away with 4:07 remaining. Cartwright immediately broke a 14-yard gain, but two fumbled handoffs slowed the Ponies and forced them to punt with 44.8 seconds on the clock. The ball came to rest on the Amboy 1-yard line with 33.5 seconds left in the game. A 44-yard run by fullback Ben Rhine and a Morrison penalty moved the line of scrimmage to the Ponies’ 40-yard line. Rhine again broke loose; he was finally run out of bounds at the 10-yard line, with 9.9 seconds remaining. Rhine finished the drive by catching a Hart pass in the end zone with 2.5 seconds on the clock and salvaged the shutout, before they completed the two-point conversion. Final score was Morrison 16, Amboy 8.
Nathan Bush led the Morrison offense with 104 yards rushing, and Aaron Deter collected 51 before his injury.