Senators look impressive in scrimmage vs. Crenshaw
Published 11:11 pm Friday, August 14, 2015
Morgan Academy doesn’t open football season for two more weeks, but the Senators appeared to be in regular season form Friday night in a scrimmage against Crenshaw Christian Academy.
Senators quarterback Harrison Adams threw four touchdown passes and Jackson Henderson scored on a touchdown reception and an interception return. Although no score was kept in the scrimmage, it was clear Morgan was the better team Friday.
The Senators reached the end zone seven times — five on drives that started from their own 20-yard-line and two on red zone drills — while Crenshaw crossed the goal line only twice. Both of the Cougars touchdowns came during red zone drills.
“We’ve got a lot of technical things that we have to iron out and fix offensively and defensively and that’s what these are for,” said Morgan head coach Jake Wingo.
“We filmed it so we will watch it and evaluate this weekend and on Monday as a team. That’s what we use it for, as an evaluation tool, and to play against somebody else always gets the guys fired up.”
The game-like portion of the scrimmage awarded each team four possessions starting at their own 20-yard line. Each possession was 10 plays long, regardless of whether or not a team scored after one play or didn’t score at all.
Unofficially, Morgan held Crenshaw to just 105 yards on the team’s 42 plays from scrimmage. Meanwhile, the Senators compiled nearly 400 yards of total offense, led by Adams and running backs JR Wood and Woodham Kemmer, in a dominant effort.
“You learn how to win and you get to a point where you expect to win and this group is starting to get that,” Wingo said. “We have high expectations as a team internally. This senior group expects to win and they expect to go out on top and it funnels down from there.”
From the opening snap, Morgan didn’t resemble the team that went 1-9 last season. The Senators scored on the eighth play of their first possession on a 32-yard touchdown pass from Adams to Davis Campbell and didn’t slow down from there.
Jackson Henderson made a diving 18-yard touchdown catch on Morgan’s second possession to give Adams his scoring toss of the night.
Kemmer entered at quarterback on the Senators’ third possession and punished Cougars’ defenders with his powerful running style. On one play, he ran to his left and then reversed field for an 11-yard gain that got the Senators inside the Cougars’ 5-yard line.
Chase Utsey, who had a 32-yard gain of his own on the drive, ran it in from 2-yards out to give Morgan its third touchdown.
Henderson intercepted a Crenshaw pass on the Cougars’ fourth possession and ran it down the sidelines for Morgan’s fourth score on one of the final plays of the game=like portion of the scrimmage.
Crenshaw didn’t sniff the end zone until the scrimmage turned to red zone offense. The Cougars tossed two touchdown passes in that portion only to watch the Senators come right back with three of their own.
Morgan scored three touchdowns in just nine plays during the red zone drill.
Utsey scored on a 6-yard touchdown run and Adams connected with Sam Brackin for two touchdown passes.
The Senators will take on Wilcox Academy Monday in a second scrimmage game but won’t open the regular season until Aug. 28 against Monroe.
The Morgan Academy junior varsity team also looked impressive Friday against Crenshaw. Ninth grader Brayton Brown ran 80 yards for a touchdown on a play where he juked numerous Crenshaw defenders.
Morgan’s Cobb Beers also intercepted a pass during the junior varsity scrimmage.