Washington’s kick return TD turns tied for St. Francis in win over Morgan Park

Zach Washington stood near his own 20-yard line.

With his St. Francis team in desperate need of a big play, Washington fielded a kickoff and changed the tide of Saturday afternoon’s game against Morgan Park in a matter of 15 seconds.

The senior wide receiver took the return for an 81-yard touchdown to fuel St. Francis to the first of its three second half touchdowns in a 35-28 come-from-behind victory over Morgan Park at Gately Stadium in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs.

“We needed a big play to get the energy back up,” said Washington, who also caught a touchdown in the first half. “We wanted this one bad. When you get to this point in the season, every game could be your last. We know what type of team we are and knew what we had to do.”

After University of Illinois commit Nasir Rankin scored his second touchdown of the first half as time expired for Morgan Park, the Mustangs reached into their bag of tricks to open the second half.

Wide receiver Lucas Davis Jr. took the snap in punt formation and took off for a 44-yard score to give Morgan Park a 28-14 lead at the 8:37 mark of the third quarter.

Washington’s return touchdown came on the ensuing kickoff.

“Any time you can swing that momentum like that play did, it’s huge for these kids,” St. Francis coach Bob McMillan said. “These games are [momentum] swing games. … It shows the character of this team. We are never out of a football game. We have playmakers, and we have guys that come out and play hard every game. I couldn’t be prouder of the way we came out and executed in the second half.”

In a game that produced limited possessions, St. Francis (7-3) made sure to capitalize after the break, scoring on each of its first two offensive possessions of the second half.

Tivias Caldwell scored his second touchdown to tie the game at 28 with 10:51 to play, and quarterback Brock Phillip found Dario Milivojevic for a 35-yard touchdown, which proved to be the game-winner at the 7:51 mark.

St. Francis got back-to-back interceptions from James McGrath and Tanner Glock to help the Spartans keep Morgan Park scoreless over the final 20-plus minutes of game action.

“I challenged these guys at halftime to go make some football plays in the second half,” McMillan said. “We knew a lot of the things that happened [in the first half] were on us, and correctable. I give a lot of credit to our defensive coaches and our players for coming out and turning the game around.”

For an offense that traditionally is more pass than run, the Spartans leaned heavily on Caldwell and their ground game Saturday. Caldwell finished the afternoon with 25 carries for 145 yards and his two scores.

St. Francis ran the ball 37 times for 191 yards compared to just nine pass attempts from Phillip (6 of 9 for 71 yards).

“We put it in our head that we were going to run the ball this week,” McMillen said. “We knew they would spread out and try to cover our receivers. Our offensive line worked their butts off, we had a great game plan and it succeeded.”

Rankin led the way offensively for Morgan Park (6-4), finishing his career with 76 yards and his two scores. Reggie Gray Jr. also found the end zone for the Mustangs in the loss.

St. Francis will host top seed Prairie Ridge (10-0) in the second round of the playoffs next weekend.