2005 Year in Review

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Ponies Ride the Storm

The Morrison Ponies bounced back from their first loss of the season in impressive fashion on Friday night. The Ponies rolled up 311 yards while allowing just 181 yards. The Pony scoring centered around the big play for most of the night. Derek Hamstra highlighted the night with his 98-yard touchdown run for the Ponies' first score. Adam Cook recovered a fumble and returned it for a touchdown, and Derek Ward used a 69-yard keeper for the final touchdown of the night of the visiting Ponies. When all was said and done, the Ponies improved to 4-1 with a 28-6 victory over the Bureau Valley Storm.

The first quarter saw little in terms of one team dominating the other. Both teams struggled offensively with Bureau Valley gaining just 31 yards while the Ponies mustered 38 yards. It wasn't until midway through the second quarter that either team really put together a scoring threat. With just over seven minutes left in the first half, the Storm began have some success on the ground by running off runs of 16 and 13 yards to help move the ball quickly down field. A seven-yard run by Justin Doty set the Storm up with first and goal from the Pony seven-yard line. From there the Ponies stood tall and forced a turnover on downs to get the ball back on their own three-yard line.
Derek Hamstra began the drive with an 11-yard run up the middle. Tylor Hayes gained a yard before a fumble dropped the Ponies back to their own two-yard line. Facing second and 12, Hamstra took the ball off tackle and sprinted 98 yards while pulling away from all the Storm defenders for a touchdown. Seth Ashpole added the extra point and the Ponies led 7-0. Neither team put up a threat for the final 5:46 of the second quarter and the 7-0 lead held as halftime began.
Morrison struck quickly in the third quarter on Bureau Valley's first drive. On the third play for the Storm, the ball popped loose and Adam Cook scooped it up and took it to the promised land for the Ponies' third defensive touchdown in three games. Ashpole added the extra point to make it 14-0. B.V. would be forced to punt on the ensuing possession and that set up another Pony touchdown.
After taking over possession, the Ponies ran off a long, grinding drive. Hamstra ran for 32 yards on the drive while Ethan Goodenough added ten yards and Derek Ward another fourteen yards including the one-yard touchdown run with 2:15 remaining in the third quarter. Ashpole's PAT was good and Morrison led by a score of 21-0.
Bureau Valley came back and began moving the ball effectively through the air. Doty connected on five straight passes for 48 yards including a 19-yard connection to Taylor Mathew to account for the only Storm points of the night. The Ponies stopped the two-point conversion to make it 21-6. The Ponies tried to comeback with a score on their next drive but ended up fumbling the ball away and allowing the Storm to take over with good field position. Morrison's defense held true and got the offense the ball back not far past where they turned it over at. It would take the visitors just two plays to punch it in.
Hamstra carried on the first play of the drive for two yards before Ward took off down the left side line for 69 yards and touchdown. Dustin Jones added the extra point to make it 28-6. Both defenses didn't allow another scoring threat, and 28-6 ended up as the final score.
Derek Hamstra led the Pony rushing attack with 170 yards on 15 carries and a touchdown. Derek Ward managed 103 yards on eight carries and two touchdowns. Tylor Hayes ran for 18 yards on seven carries. Ethan Goodenough tallied 18 yards on eight carries. Mitch Neinhaus and Nick Wiebenga ran for a yard on one carry and Tylor Rus ran once for zero yards. Derek Ward was 0-3 passing.
Adam Cook led the defense with 13 tackles and a fumble recovery return for a touchdown. Cook was followed by Derek Hamstra with 11 tackles, Clint Shepard with 10 tackles, Seth Ashpole with six tackles, Derek Ward and Ethan Goodenough with five tackles. Goodenough had one fumble recovery. Abe Houzenga tallied four tackles followed by Dustin Jones with three tackles, Mitch Neinhaus and Taylor Boyles with two tackles, and Zach Osborn, Jon Sumption, and Michael Benson with one tackle each.
The Ponies (4-1) will next be in action on Friday night, October 2, when they host the Erie-Prophetstown Panthers at 5:30 p.m.

by rustinl
2005-09-25 20:03:18