The Morton Indians downed the Smyer Bobcats 29-6 in UIL District 4-2A High School football action on Friday.
The Indians clinched a playoff berth with the win while the Bobcats are in a must win situation over the next two games to remain in the hunt.
Morton Head Football Coach Keith Mauldin gave his team a lot of credit for believing in the system.
“We haven’t been in the playoffs since 2011,” he said. “The kids are learning to trust the process.”
Speaking of the Smyer game, he said, “We got off to a rocky start, but we’re learning how to win those games.”
“We made too many mistakes,” said Smyer Head Football Coach Scott Funke. “Credit to Morton for capitalizing with big plays off turnovers.”
Both teams had trouble moving the ball at times. Morton suffered one interception, but also punted twice and were forced to turn over on downs four times.
The Bobcats suffered two interceptions and a lost fumble. They punted four times and turned over on downs three.
Morton won the toss and elected to receive, but were forced to turn over on downs in the first series.
Smyer’s first drive ended on the third play when Morton’s Jaeden Alvarado intercepted a Peyton Casillas pass to give the Indian offense another shot from the Morton 43-yard line.
The Indian drive lasted only two plays before Smyer’s Aiden Martinez intercepted Dante Chavez, giving the Bobcats a first down and 10 yards to go on their own 49-yard line.
The Bobcats took over with 8:38 left in the first quarter and marched 51 yards, mostly relying on the running of Preston Moore. Facing third down and 12 yards on the Morton 17-yard line, Casillas found Rylan Smith open for the first of the game.
The Bobcats then forced Morton to turnover on downs, but were unable to do anything offensively and turned over themselves on the Morton 35yard line.
Morton’s first drive of the second quarter resulted in another touchdown for the Indians. This one came on a 24-yard pass from Chavez to E.J. Rivas, making the score 8-6 with 4:26 left in the half.
A Smyer fumble on the first play of their next drive gave the Indians the ball on the Smyer 25. Morton took advantage, scoring on a pass from Alex Lopez to Chavez from the 25. The twopoint conversion attempted failed, but the Indians led 14-6 early in the second period.
Each team had one more drive in the first half, but both were forced to punt. Each team also punted on their first drive of the second half. Smyer started their second drive of the half on their own 25 and got to the 48 before they were forced to punt.
Morton blocked the punt and took over on the Smyer 25yard line for what looked to be a repeat of the first half, but Smyer’s defense held and Morton turned over on downs.
The next score wouldn’t come until early in the fourth quarter. Morton, in mid-drive when the quarter started, marched downfield to score with 9:18 remaining in the third quarter and leading 22-6.
The final score of the game came with 4:09 left in the fourth quarter when Morton got a turnover on downs at the Smyer 20-yard line. Chavez found A.J. Mendoza open for a 29-6 Morton lead with just over four minutes left.
Morton is now 2-1 in district and travels to New Home for a 7 p.m. game Friday. Smyer falls to 0-3 and will look to get things on track in Seagraves, also at 7 p.m. Friday.