Morgan Park escapes Orr

Updated: September 23, 2011 7:39PM

Last week Morgan Park suffered an embarrassing loss by its standards at the hands of Amundsen. Friday afternoon Orr wanted a piece of the action, but the Mustangs rallied to pull out a 13-7 victory in the Prairie State Conference and gained their first win of the season.

Neither team could mount much offense in the first half with only five first downs made between both teams, but with 11 seconds remaining in the second quarter, Orr hit pay dirt when quarterback Jamal McDowell connected with wide receiver Rashard Brown to give the Spartans (2-3, 0-2) a 7-0 lead at halftime. Morgan Park took advantage of several Orr miscues, converting an important fourth and five from the 35 of Orr when Orr was whistled for offsides.

The Mustangs scored with 10:59 remaining in the third quarter on a third and 15 from the 16-yard line Orr on a run by Charles Bournes to tie the score at 7. Dariel Crowder iced the game for the Mustangs when he intercepted a pass that was tipped by linebacker Eddie Scott and raced 54 yards for the winning score with 4:25 remaining in the fourth quarter. There were plenty of smiles on the Morgan Park sideline starting with coach Jeremy Gold, who joked about notching his first Chicago Public League coaching victory.

“I didn’t think it would take this long, but the kids one by one are slowly buying into what we are trying to do. We had a great week of practice and you can see that the focus and the mind set is starting to get where it should be,” said Gold.

The game was held up for 20 minutes with 1:27 remaining when quarterback Orr Jamal McDowell was injured. He was taken off the field on a stretcher and to the hospital. Assistant coach Keith Fagan spoke on behalf of head coach Kevin Jackson who left with McDowell.

“We had them. The difference in the game was the crucial mistakes that we made.”

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