The Morton Indians faced off against the Wellington Skyrockets this past Thursday at Happy State Bank Stadium in Canyon in High School Football District 2A-2 in the Area Round of playoffs.
The Morton Indians had the ball at the start of the game and had a good kick return from Christain Enriquez which took them down to midfield.
The offense wouldn’t be able to get anything going as their drive stalled out after a holding call shifted the momentum of the game.
From there on the defense from the Indians wouldn’t be able to stop the Skyrocket offense as they were able to score 32 points in the first quarter of the game.
It wouldn’t get much easier for the team as they would lose the game 70-0 due to the high powered offense of Wellington.
The leading rusher for the team on the season was quarterback Dante Chavez who had 810 yards on the ground off of 151 carries throughout the season. He was able to score nine times on the season as well with his longest run of the season being a big 80-yard run and no fumbles on the season.
The second leading rusher was running back Enriquez who had 429 yards on the season off of 78 carries. Enriquez was able to get score three touchdowns on the season as well.
For passing again its Chavez who threw for 1,297 yards on 247 attempts which he completed 125 of those passing attempts.
Chavez had 18 touchdown passes as well as 18 interceptions throughout the year and was well protected as he was only sacked three times on the year.
The leading receiver on the Indians on the season was E.J. Rivas who had 25 catches on the year for 221 yards with three touchdowns and no fumbles throughout the year.
Alex Lopez had another 15 catches on the season for 195 yards with one touchdown. Lane Lyon had 18 catches for 184 yards with two touchdowns.
Enriquez had 15 catches out of the backfield for 179 yards with three touchdowns and no fumbles. A.J. Mendoza had 19 catches for 175 yards and two touchdowns. Defensive standout Villarreal was able to get some catches as he had 10 on the season for 109 yards and one touchdown on the season while only fumbling the ball once.
Jose Alvarado had 12 catches for 106 yards and had two touchdowns, fumbling the ball only once on the season.
Cade Lyon had eight catches on the season for 96 yards while having three touchdown which is one of the best on his team for receiving touchdowns.
Quarterback Chavez was able to catch three passes on the season which resulted in three touchdowns throughout the season. All of those passes to Chavez came from senior Alex Lopez who threw the ball four times and had four touchdowns on the season.
The defense was the strong point of the Morton team as their leading tackler on the team was athlete Cade Lyon who had 118 tackles with 35 of them being solo and 83 assists. He had nine TFL’s, two sacks, two interceptions and one forced fumble throughout the year.
Brayden Villarreal missed the first two games of the season due to injury but came back into the season as a great addition to Lyon as he was able to get 81 tackles on the season with 35 being solo tackles and 46 assists.
Villarreal also had two sacks, four TFL’s, three interceptions, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.
The Morton Indians had a bounce back season under first year Head Football Coach and Athletic Director, Keith Mauldin who took control over the program and was able to win a playoff for the first time since 2011 when the team beat Memphis.
Morton finished off their season with a record of 6-6 and finished fourth in their district behind New Home, Ropes and Seagraves. The coaching staff is excited as they only have one senior graduating off of this young team.