Streamwood's Morrow runs for school-record 300 yards
Streamwood running back Alex Morrow showed quite a bit of explosiveness as a sophomore.
This season, a goal was set for the 5-foot-10 junior to be even more explosive.
"We wanted him to run lower and finish the run," said Streamwood coach Cal Cummins.
Well, Morrow finished Friday night's game with a school-record 300 yards on 41 carries as the Sabres took advantage of 5 second-half turnovers and posted a 27-12 victory over Dundee-Crown in Carpentersville.
"Three hundred yards? I thought maybe 100," said the humble Morrow, who also plays baseball at Streamwood. " It feels great. I'm excited. It was all due to my linemen (Ben Fritz, Ryan Wohlhart, Garret Surges, A.J. Mitchell, Peter Samoska and Jon Olmo). They did all the work."
After Sabres quarterback Dalton Lundeen threw a 4-yard TD pass to tight end Fritz for a 7-0 lead midway through the second quarter, the Chargers worked their way back into the game, scoring 12 points in the final 1:04 of the first half.
Tulsa Bates caught a 9-yard pass from QB Tanner Kotian with 1:04 left, and then Brandon Stone picked off a pass and raced 34 yards for a touchdown with 50 seconds left to give D-C a 12-7 lead at the break.
But the Sabres' defense pitched a shutout in the second half, getting interceptions from Vince Williams, Matt Nykaza and Steve Sandoval along with a fumble recoveries by Willis Sacki and Williams (near midfield with under two minutes to play).
By then, the Sabres had built a 27-12 lead with touchdown runs by Morrow (37 yards) and Lundeen (1 yard) and a 25-yard TD pass from Lundeen to Nick Pryor with 2:28 left in the game.
"You can't beat anyone with 5 turnovers," said Chargers coach Mike Davis. "He (Morrow) runs hard and has decent speed. They were making holes for him, and he was hitting them. It pretty much came down to that.
"Even though he ran for 300 yards, our defense still stopped them when it had to and gave our offense a chance."
Danny Sharp did all the rushing for Crown (0-2), getting 22 yards from 14 carries. Kotian was 16-of-30 for 177 yards.
"Sharp runs hard," Davis said. "We had a hard time getting holes for him."
Morrow got the blocking he needed and he helped himself with some nifty cut backs and elusive weaving through defenders.
"His acceleration and lateral movement is pretty tremendous," Cummins said. "He is now showing the ability to burst through arm tackles.
"I felt we were we scheming right in the first half. It was just a matter of staying with it. Defensively, getting turnovers in second half was a key for us. We had a lot of kids who made the plays, and that was nice. This was all about team. Everyone played hard."