Morgan shutout by Escambia, Senators win streak ends
Published 12:37 am Saturday, October 10, 2015
Morgan Academy’s Caleb Pitts and JR Wood made a tackle during Friday night’s game against Escambia Academy. The Senators had trouble slowing down Escambia running back Kris Brown, who scored four touchdowns for the Cougars. –Andrew Garner | Atmore Advance
By Andrew Garner | The Atmore Advance
After the first quarter, Morgan Academy appeared to have No. 7 ranked Escambia Academy right where it wanted it.
At that point, the Senators trailed 21-0, but that was nothing new for a team that had rallied two straight weeks to overcome double-digit deficits. However, this week the magic ran out.
Escambia running back Kris Brown ran up, down and around the Senators defense to lead the Cougars to a 35-0 win. He scored four of Escambia’s five touchdowns and totaled 277 yards.
“The way the last two weeks have gone, we know we are never out of a game,” said Morgan Academy head coach Jake Wingo. “We just for whatever reason didn’t play to that same emotion, so we’ve got to find that. We’ve got to get it back for next week.”
Brown was a thorn in the Senators’ side Friday.
He scored all three of his first-half touchdowns in the first quarter from 35, 80 and 59 yards out.
“I really encouraged my line,” Brown said about the offensive front. “They had some pretty good blocks. Our wide receivers pursued to the ball really well. Our coach made some good play calls.”
Escambia stretched its lead to 28-0 at halftime on a Trey Turner touchdown run. Brown’s fourth touchdown of the game came in the third quarter and put the score well out of reach for the Senators.
“He’s a great player,” Wingo said. “We missed some tackles on him that would’ve resulted in some negative plays and he broke out of them and made big, long runs out of them. He made a lot of things on his own.”
The loss drops the Senators to 2-2 in class AAA, region 1, but still in control of their playoff destiny.
Morgan has region games against Fort Dale and Hooper Academy remaining before a season finale against Clarke Prep, a non-region opponent.
Escambia head football coach Hugh Fountain said he told the players all week that if they played well, it could have an effect down the road knowing how important Friday’s game was.
“This is a good example of hanging in there and trying hard,” Fountain said.
“The only three we’ve lost to (Autauga Academy, Edgewood Academy and Monroe Academy) are 17-3. I feel like we came out with authority in this game.”
For the night, the Cougars had 393 total yards on offense compared to Morgan Academy’s 126.
