Morgan Scores Five Touchdowns as West High Holds Off Dubuque Senior in Return to Action
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
DUBUQUE – West High’s return to the football field came in the form of a 90-mile road trip to face a ranked foe on a short week of practice.
Marcus Morgan and his West High teammates made sure it was a warm welcome back.
Playing for the first time in nearly a month Morgan accounted for five touchdowns, highlighted by a game-clinching pick-six in the fourth quarter, as Class 4A eighth-ranked West High held off No. 9 Dubuque Senior 35-23 on Thursday at Dalzell Field in Dubuque.
“I honestly thought that was one of the guttiest performances from a high school football team that I have been a part of,” West High coach Garrett Hartwig said. “To have to take three weeks off without being around these boys knowing what they were doing to playing an excellent team on the road on a Thursday night and to gut that win out speaks to their character, speaks to their leadership and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
West High (3-0) started the season with back-to-back wins but hadn’t played a game since beating City High in the Battle for the Boot on September 4.
The Iowa City Community School District opened the school year with online only instruction the following Tuesday. That meant a state-sanctioned stop of all activities.
For three weeks West High held players-only practices.
Just six days after getting the go-ahead to officially restart its season last Saturday West High showed why it believes its one of the best teams in the state.
West High picked off four passes and came up with a pair of big defense stops late in the fourth quarter while snapping a two-game winning streak for Dubuque Senior (3-3).
“We communicated with each other during these hard weeks a lot,” West High senior linebacker Dijon Genus said. “We made sure guys were getting in, we were looking at film we were doing our in-home workouts and making sure we had to do what we had to do. Four weeks off, that’s big and look where we are.”
In its biggest test of the season to date West High got a big game from its best player.
Morgan accounted for more than 300 yards of total offense and four touchdowns and picked off a pair of passes including one that he returned 45 yards for a score with 4:44 left.
The senior quarterback passed for 230 yards and three touchdowns including two to senior Grahm Goering and also ran for 73 yards and a touchdown as West High racked up 343 total yards.
“The best thing about Marcus is he will be the first to acknowledge that he is not alone,” Hartwig said. “He’s surrounded by a lot of playmakers. It was a team effort tonight, led by Marcus certainly and it’s not just what he and the captains did on the field tonight it’s what they did the last three weeks on their own that showed up tonight.”
Genus came up with the first of four West High take aways when he picked off a tipped Jack Gilligan pass with 3:04 left in the first quarter.
The interception by Genus set West High up with good field position at the Trojan 47 yard line.
“I saw it coming I just had to attack and get the ball,” Genus said. “I was just trying to make a big play for us.”
Seven plays later Morgan scored on a 1-yard touchdown run on four and goal to give West High a 7-0 lead.
Morgan hit Goering with touchdown passes of 54 and 22 yards in the second quarter.
The second touchdown toss with 27 seconds left before halftime gave West High a 21-7 was set up by an Eric Torres-Castro interception and gave the Trojans a 21-7 halftime lead.
Morgan made it 28-7 when he capped a four-play, 47-yard drive to open the second half with a 16-yard strike to Damarion Williams.
“Coming off four or five days of practice execution was a concern,” Morgan said. “I wasn’t too worried about conditioning, we’ve been working our butts off the last three weeks but execution was kind of concerning but I thought we executed pretty well.”
Dubuque Senior rattled off 16 unanswered points, cutting the lead to 28-23 when Gilligan found tight end Carson Tart wide open down the middle of the field for a 69-yard touchdown with 10:54 left.
After scoring on its opening possession of the second half West High had its next four drives end with punts and a fifth drive end with a turnover on downs at the Ram 29 yard line.
“My biggest concern was what we saw in the third quarter, just game shape and fatigue,” Hartwig said. “I sent out difficult conditioning plans, the boys followed it but nothing replaces a game with the adrenaline and the juice they feel. We were as sharp as I expected us to be in the first half but I was concerned about the second half and it showed up a little bit but they are tough boys and they fought through.”
With the West High offense struggling to move the ball late the Trojan defense continued to come up big.
Dubuque Senior twice had possession trailing by three but the Trojans forced a punt and then sealed the game when Morgan corralled a deflected pass and returned it 45 yards for a score.
“They had ran that play a couple of times,” Morgan said. “The quarterback threw it a little behind him and up and I sort of played the tip and it fell right into my hands and I had blockers all the way back. That was obviously a big play for the whole team and it was a play that definitely had to be made for sure.”
West High came up with one final stop on the ensuing Ram possession. Dubuque Senior finished with 419 yards of total offense, 182 coming via the running of senior tailback Cain McWilliams but the four turnovers proved too much for the Rams to overcome.
“This was a game that I loved for our defense,” Genus said. “We got so many turnovers and I just liked the way we played but I’m letting you know we aren’t done. We can build and we are going to build.”
ICW DS
First downs 14 12
Rushes-yards 32-113 41-207
Comp-Att-Int 10-22-0 12-22-4
Passing yards 230 212
Total yards 343 419
Punts-avg 6-40.5 3-32
Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0
Penalties-yards 5-35 4-35
West High 7 14 7 7 – 35
Dubuque Senior 0 7 10 6 – 23
ICW – Marcus Morgan 1 run (Owen Smith kick)
ICW – Grahm Goering 54 pass from Morgan (Smith kick)
DS – Landon Sauser 8 pass from Jack Gilligan (Jacob Konrardy kick)
ICW – Goering 22 pass from Morgan (Smith kick)
ICW – Damarion Williams 16 pass from Morgan (Smith kick)
DS – Konrardy 32 field goal
DS – Sauser 12 pass from Gilligan (Konrardy kick)
DS – Carson Tart 69 pass from Gilligan (Pass failed)
ICW – Morgan 45 interception return (Smith kick)
Individual Statistics
RUSHING – West High: Trey King 16-52, Marcus Morgan 9-73, Fabian Brown 3-12, Taylon Mann 1-0, Grahm Goering 1-(-1), Team 3-(-23). Dubuque Senior: Cain McWilliams 30-182, Jack Gilligan 6-19, Hunter Preston 2-8, Tommy Williams 2-0, Team 1-(-2).
PASSING – West High: Marcus Morgan 10-22-0 230. Dubuque Senior: Jack Gilligan 12-22-4 212.
RECEIVING – West High: Grahm Goering 3-106, Eric Torres-Castro 4-42, Mikey Crutcher 2-66, Damarion Williams 1-16. Dubuque Senior: Landon Sauser 4-87, Hunter Preston 4-38, Carson Tart 1-69, Logan Flanagan 1-8, Ben Hefel 1-5, Cain McWilliams 1-5
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