At the beginning of the Saturday, October 1, 2016, football game, the entire Morrison High School Fresh-Soph team walked to midfield carrying the jersey of recently departed teammate, Owen Oetting. Following an emotional coin flip, everyone in attendance rose and applauded, to recognize the loss of a youth who was taken way too soon.
The opening quarter showed little offense on either side of the ball. Fulton only gained 29 yards on the ground, and Morrison mustered 34 total yards. The Mustang defense continued to dominate the Tugboats. Their offense soon self-destructed. Two possessions ended when Morrison’s quarterback Jacob Schlegel was intercepted by Ethan Long and Zach Stratton.
Freshman Keagan Anderson took over the last two minutes of the half. He broke over right tackle and exploded down the right sideline, for a 90-yard touchdown, with only 1:49 left in the half. He erupted for another 32-yard scamper following Fulton’s three-and-out series, but the half ended on the Stratton interception. The rushing yards favored Morrison by a total of 191 to 39, and the Ponies led 6-0.
Anderson continued his dominance. He rumbled for a 78-yard touchdown on the first snap of the second half, and he gathered 106 rushing yards in the third quarter alone. Fulton generated a scoring threat following the Pony score. Travis Hill broke a 42-yard run, before Anderson ran him out of bounds on the 8-yard line. Fulton fumbled the next snap, and Wade Hackbarth recovered the miscue on the 9-yard line to end the Fulton surge. Immediately, the Ponies executed a 13-play drive. It saw Freshman fullback Riley Wilkens punish Fulton tacklers on several runs, before he bulled into the endzone from 11 yards out, to up the Morrison lead to 20-0.
Wilkens scored again on the first series of the final quarter. He charged up the middle for a 16-yard touchdown. His extra point attempt was blocked; the score rose to 26-0. The Pony defense, that had been so dominant all night, was caught sleeping on the first play of Fulton’s fourth quarter series. Quarterback Max Lemke connected with Larson Barnett for a 65-yard touchdown, to form the final score of 26-6.
The Ponies generated 463 yards on the ground, with Anderson gaining 276 and Wilkens adding 107. The defense held Fulton to 90 yards rushing and 123 yards in the air, with 65 yards coming on the single fourth quarter play.
Morrison 0 – 6 – 14 – 6 = 26
Fulton 0 – 0 – 0 – 6 = 6