The Morrison Ponies entered Friday evening with high expectations after their dominating win the previous Friday over Erie-Prophetstown, but left the field with an embarrassing 36-12 defeat to the Amboy Rowboats.
Amboy started the game with a 66-yard pass completion from quarterback Liam Ohlendorf to Nate King for a touchdown on the first play of the game. If that wasn’t painful enough for the Ponies the ensuing kickoff was fumbled by Austin Shoup and the Rowboats had possession again with only 31 seconds gone off the clock. An offside penalty on Amboy was followed by a quarterback sack by Shoup and the visitors were forced to punt. Morrison went three and out and Amboy fumbled on their second snap and it was recovered by Noah Blacklock, but the Ponies couldn’t generate a first down and returned the possession with a punt. On the third play of the Amboy series, they ran the same play that resulted in a score to open the game and got the same results, an 80-yard touchdown and the Ponies were looking at a 14-0 deficit with 1:15 left in the quarter. The kickoff that followed the score was fumbled by Andy Bird and the Rowboats owned the ball again at their own 24-yard line. Sophomore Chris Jones covered the 24 yards on the first handoff and the quarter ended with the Ponies staring at a 20 point deficit.
The second quarter saw the fumble take center stage again, but in the Ponies favor this time. Two penalties slowed the Ponies first possession and Andy Bird picked up a loose ball fumble on the Rowboats first play and returned it for a score and the Ponies cut the lead to 20-6 with 8:09 left in the half. Each team owned the ball again in the quarter, but couldn’t cross the goal and the Rowboats ended the half with a failed fourth and goal from the seven yard line and the half ended with Amboy leading 20-6. The first half statistics recorded a total of six fumbles and the Ponies gaining only 26 total yards on offense while Amboy was collecting 247 yards.
Morrison’s offense couldn’t get untracked in the third quarter while Amboy’s Jones recorded a 16-yard touchdown at the 4:11 mark and the score moved to 28-6. The only excitement for the Ponies was a reaction to a tackle by Leather Lewis that forced a fumble and Joey Brackemyer scooped it up and carried the 18 yards into the end zone to end the quarter with the Rowboats leading 28-12.
The fourth quarter saw Amboy cross the goal again with 5:07 left on the clock to secure the win by a score of 36-12.
The embarrassing statistics revealed that Amboy had gained 390 total yards and the Ponies were unable to generate over fifty yards on the evening.
The Ponies get the week off as the Homecoming guest from Riverdale are unable to field a Fresh-Soph team for the scheduled October 4 contest.