Morton cruises past upstart Hammond

Updated: September 24, 2011 3:05PM

HAMMOND — In the wake of Friday night’s 37-7 dismantling of Hammond High, Morton quarterback Chris McCormack had a message for all of his crosstown rivals.

“We run this city,” he said.

There had been a lot of talk about Hammond’s 5-0 start, about how new coach Eric Schreiber had given the Wildcats a physical and intense edge, about how Hammond is a program on the rise.

All of that is true.

But the Wildcats are not yet at Morton’s level. That much was clear Friday night.

McCormack threw four touchdown passes and ran for 119 yards on 16 carries to lead a Morton squad that came out angry after blowing a 26-10 fourth-quarter lead to Munster last week.

Morton coach Roy Richards was grateful for the wakeup call.

“If we had come back from behind and beaten Munster, it would have been hard to get our guys up for this game. And it was not hard,”he said. “Our guys knew we were reeling. And the more they read in the paper that Hammond High’s undefeated, that they’re back, that possibly we’re not as good as we thought — that really fueled the fire. We had a great week of practice and it was going to take a heck of a team to beat us after what happened last week.”

How intense was Morton?

“I didn’t say a word from about 5 o’clock until gametime, until I first had to call a play,” McCormack said. “I was just so focused on this game and winning.”

Not that he had a doubt. Even if Hammond’s Jesse Woods-Curtis said earlier in the week that the Wildcats were still the “kings” of Hammond.

“We knew we were going to make it rain,” McCormack said. “We knew we’d be putting up points.”

The Governors kept doing so into the fourth quarter, with McCormack and Jimmy Glidewell still throwing often late; Glidewell’s 30-yard touchdown pass to Robert House (House’s second of the game) made it 38-0 with 9:30 to go.

Schreiber didn’t seem very pleased by that, and there was some tension in the postgame handshake between the coaches. But Richards said there was no bad intentions — the physical Wildcats simply wouldn’t let them run consistenty.

“It was hard because they were packing the box,” Richards said. “We tried running out the clock, but because of their defense and all the penalties, we had to throw.”

Richards said there’s no ill will between the coaches.

“We’re good friends,” he said. “This is a heated contest, and it’s hard to say we’re going to be great friends on this night. But we both know before and after the game we’re good friends, but during the game, that’s just the way it is.”

Hammond actually had a very promising start to the game, driving all the way to the Morton 2-yard line. But the Governors held firm, and Elijah Harris’ 20-yard field goal attempt was blocked by Alfred Dickey.

That was the last time the Wildcats were able to move the ball until garbage time late in the fourth quarter, as penalties, poor plays and Morton’s defense doomed them to repeated three-and-outs.

Morton had less trouble sustaining offense, responding to the opening drive with a 14-play, 80-yard march, capped by McCormack’s 6-yard touchdown pass to Brock Daniels. The extra point came up short, so Morton had a 6-0 lead.

McCormack added a 23-yard touchdown pass to Eleazar Henderson on Morton’s next drive — set up by a sensational one-handed catch over the middle by Henderson three plays earlier. McCormack hit Dickey for a 46-yard touchdown with less than two minutes to play in the half, set up by Faron Osborne‚s blocked punt, for a 21-0 lead at the break.

McCormack added a 15-yard TD strike to House on the opening drive of the fourth quarter, and a botched Hammond snap on a punt skittered through the end zone for a safety to make it 30-0. Glidewell’s pass made it 37-0, and Wildcats quarterback Eric Schreiber Jr. hit Thomas Gary for a 25-yard touchdown pass in the waning minutes.

Still, Hammond had its chances to make it a game, particularly in the first half before the Governors pulled away. Morton‚s sloppy play and careless penalties made sure of that.

On its second drive, Hammond shanked a punt, but it hit the back of an unsuspecting Morton player, allowing the Wildcats to continue the drive on Morton’s side of midfield. Three plays and four yards later, they punted. And midway through the second quarter, Woods-Curtis broke loose for a 30-yard gain on a fake punt, but it was wiped out by a Hammond chop block some 20 yards behind the play. The Wildcats committed nine penalties for 80 yards.

Morton, meanwhile, was whistled for a whopping 13 penalties for 112 yards, though Richards wasn’t concerned, seemingly chalking it up to a flag-happy crew.

“I don’t think we played that sloppy,” he said. “I thought we played hard, and we played well.”

After last week’s debacle against Munster, the Governors are feeling a lot better about where they stand — in the city and in the region.

“I’m still upset about last week, and I’m going to be for a long time,” McCormack said. “But we showed tonight that we can come back from something like that and focus and come up big.”

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