Morton routs Wildcats, turn attention to Panthers

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HAMMOND --  In his 10 years as coach of Morton,  Roy Richards has done a great job of turning the Governors program around and making them anything but a cupcake on an opponent's schedule.

The Governors' three-season record before Richards arrived: 1-29. Morton's record the past two seasons: 13-8.

That's pretty impressive, except for one not-so-small problem:  the Griffith Panthers.

"Let's face it," Richards said. "If you're going to win Sectional 9, you have to beat Griffith at some point in time. They've been our nemesis so let's get the monkey off our back and see if we can get it done."

What kryptonite is to Superman, Griffith is to Morton. Since 1995, the two have played seven playoff games. All seven were won by Griffith including three straight coming into this year. The Governors will get a chance to end that streak next Friday.

Morton all but carbon-copied its last win over Hammond, mixing a strong offensive performance with a suffocating defense to throttle the Wildcats 42-0 with their next destination being the Boneyard against a red-hot Panthers team that beat Hobart on Friday night.

As they did against Hammond in their 63-8 regular season win, the Governors jumped on the Wildcats from the opening whistle, scoring the first three times they touched the ball -- they scored the first five times when the two met in September.

Two of those touchdowns came from lightning-quick quarterback Cory Phillips who scored from 8 and 3 yards out and burned Hammond with the quarterback draw on several occasions.

"We just run what we run.  We've been running it all week and we perfected our game plan and that's what happened tonight," Phillips said. "I'm not really happy with myself because I fumbled twice. I haven't fumbled all season until the sectionals."

For sure, Morton had to be happy with its defense, which shut down Hammond and its star-in-the-making quarterback Antwion McGee, relentlessly pressuring the sophomore throughout the game with six sacks and four interceptions.  The Wildcats' running game fared no better. At one point in the first half, the Governors forced eight of nine Wildcats running plays into negative yards.

The Wildcats did have two chances to turn the game around in the first quarter trailing 13-0 when they had the ball on the Governors' 30-yard line, but both times were shut down.

"We couldn't block their front five and if we can't do that, we can't do anything," McGee said. "I feel bad for our seniors because for some of them it could be their last game playing football. But there's always next year."

For the Governors, the future is next week and a bone to pick at the Boneyard.

"I think for these kids it would be the time of their lives (if they beat Griffith next week)," Richards said. "I think our program is at a point now where we expect to win and if we don't we'll expect to win next year and if we don't then we expect to win the year after that. These kids and coaches have worked so hard and a win would be something they can live with for the rest of their lives."