McCormack propels Morton past pesky Griffith

Updated: August 19, 2011 11:10PM

Morton head coach Roy Richards expected as much.

And in typical season-opening fashion, his team affirmed his expectations Friday night during its 21-14 Northwest Crossroads Conference victory over Griffith at the Boneyard.

Talk about an ugly game.

“It’s week one with Griffith and Morton,” Richards said. “I’d like to tell you this is a first, but it’s not. I’ve been here 13 years for Morton football week one and this is what usually happens.”

Morton’s Chris McCormack threw three touchdown passes, including a pair to Robert House of 11 and 28 yards.

The 11-yard score came with only 44.6 seconds left in the first half and gave Morton a 14-0 halftime lead.

The TD was set up after Morton’s Alex Dickey picked off Brown and took the ball to the Panthers’ 19.

The second TD to House was a 28-yarder to make it 21-7 Governors with 1:03 left in the third period.

Both of House’s TDs came on third-down plays.

While the Panthers struggled offensively — they had only three first downs in the first half — they managed to cut Morton’s lead to 14-7 when Brett Brinkley snagged a 22-yard scoring pass from quarterback Austin Brown.

After House caught his second TD pass, Griffith drove to Morton’s 2-yard line, but the Governors’ defense responded by stuffing Brown on a fourth down attempt with 4:54 left.

“Our defense was really good tonight,” Richards said. “I loved the defense. I was a little bit disappointed in our offensive line play, but you have to credit Griffith some for that.”

After Griffith was stymied by the Govs’ defense at the 1-yard line on Brown’s failed fourth down play, the Panthers caught a break.

Morton ran a hitch play on first down with House catching a pass from McCormack for five yards.

On second down, though, the Govs ran a speed option play, but McCormack didn’t execute. An errant pitch was recovered by Troy Yarnelle in the end zone for a TD to pull Griffith within 21-14 with 4:07 to go.

“Nobody had the pitch,” Richards said. “It was just a matter of getting the ball to the tailback, but he didn’t do it. He (McCormack) came over after the play and said it was a lousy pitch.”

The Panthers still had a chance to tie the game after Tyler Yost picked off a tipped ball thrown by McCormack at Griffith’s 48 with 1:30 to play.

Brown, however, couldn’t move the ball and Morton took over at the Panthers’ 46 and ran out the clock for the win.

“It’s week one and we’ll take it,” Richards said. “I know we’ll play them again in week 12.”

Penalties really hurt the Govs as they had 10 for 72 yards.

“The penalties are what really killed us,” Richards said. “A lot of big plays were called back.”

Morton even had a 15-yard face mask penalty while on offense on the game’s second play — after a 28-yard pass play to Alfred Dickey.

Dickey caught a 22-yard TD pass from McCormack midway through the first quarter following a Griffith fumble at its own 22.

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