QB leads North Boone over Trojans

Mendota suffers 46-6 BNC loss

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Posted 10/19/17

MENDOTA – Last year, North Boone quarterback Britton Morris showed Mendota that he possesses some pretty impressive passing skills. This season, Morris proved he has other talents as well.

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QB leads North Boone over Trojans

Mendota suffers 46-6 BNC loss

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Mendota’s Kiandre Morris looks for some running room as teammate Ben Bokus supplies a block on Oct. 13 at the MHS field. (Reporter photo)

MENDOTA – Last year, North Boone quarterback Britton Morris showed Mendota that he possesses some pretty impressive passing skills. This season, Morris proved he has other talents as well.

In addition to his throwing ability, the junior gunslinger can also run with the football and play defense as he did a multitude of things to lead his Vikings to a 46-6 win over the Trojans in a Big Northern Conference game on Oct. 13 at the MHS field.

The loss dropped the Trojans to 1-7 overall and 1-6 in league contests, while North Boone got its sixth victory of the season to lock up a post-season playoff berth.

When Mendota visited North Boone last year, all Morris did was throw for 484 yards and seven touchdowns. While he only threw for 236 yards and three TDs this season, Morris added some more dimension to his game when he rushed for a touchdown and also scored one on defense when he took a fumble recovery back for a touchdown.

The outcome of the game was pretty much determined in the first quarter when the Vikings piled up 27 points. Mendota also scored in the opening stanza, but that was the only time the Trojans found the end zone, while North Boone accumulated enough points to kick in the running clock in the third period.

It didn’t take long for the Vikings to get on the board, when after accepting the game’s opening kick, they needed just four plays to cover 58 yards for a touchdown. Cooper Baden capped of the quick drive when he sprinted 23 yards to paydirt less than two minutes into the contest. Korey Yarc booted the extra-point kick. The big play of the drive was a 21-yard pass completion from Morris to Ethan Rydell.

The Trojans quickly answered North Boone’s tally thanks to an 80-yard kickoff return by Ben Bokus down to the Viking 14-yard line. On the first play of Mendota’s offensive series, Kiandre Morris powered his way through would-be North Boone tacklers to the end zone just 24 seconds after the Vikings had scored. Edwin Angulo misfired on the extra-point kick and the Trojans trailed by one, 7-6.

After that, North Boone really took off. The Vikings scored three more times in the first quarter and twice in the second period to take a 40-6 halftime lead.

After the Trojans’ touchdown, North Boone’s ensuing possession resulted in an 8-yard touchdown run by Max Zwart, followed by a Yarc kick. The Vikings went 66 yards in six plays to get in the end zone.

Mendota’s next possession went awry when Bokus took a big hit from a North Boone defender on a rush attempt and the ball popped loose into the hands of North Boone’s Baden at the Trojan 43-yard line. The Vikings quickly capitalized on the turnover when Britton Morris ran in from 9 yards out to put the finishing touches on a short four-play, 43-yard drive. Yarc’s extra-point kick was good.

On the ensuing kick by North Boone, the ball hugged the ground and spun away from would-be Mendota receivers, and it was recovered by Rydell at the Trojan 32-yard line. Just a moment later, North Boone’s Morris hooked up with Nathan Nelson on a 23-yard touchdown pass to give the Vikings a 27-6 lead. Yarc missed the extra-point attempt.

Mendota’s offense showed some life on its next possession when it drove from its own 37 to inside the North Boone 10. But a chop block penalty on the Trojans moved the ball back to the 19, where Angulo eventually tried a 36-yard field goal that sailed wide right.

After the Vikings took over possession, they put themselves in a big hole when a penalty moved the ball back to the 7, but Britton Morris’s arm got them out of trouble when he completed a 47-yard pass to Baden to the Trojan 46. From there, Morris connected with Zwart on a 46-yard touchdown completion to build the lead to 33-6. North Boone’s two-point pass attempt was no good.

North Boone added one more score before intermission when Baden intercepted a Bryson Prusator pass at the Viking 42 with 54 seconds left. Two plays later, Hayden Corson gathered in a 43-yard aerial from Britton Morris and raced into the end zone with 20 seconds to go. Yarc nailed the PAT kick to make it 40-6.

Mendota took the second-half kickoff and staged its most impressive offensive drive of the game, using nearly eight minutes of the clock to advance the ball to the North Boone 13. But disaster struck again when North Boone’s Kamil Walker jarred the ball loose from Bokus and into the arms of the Vikings’ Morris, who raced 87 yards to the end zone to make it a 40-point difference, which kicked in the running clock.

Each team fumbled the ball away over the remainder of the third quarter, and then in the fourth, Mendota drove to the North Boone 2-yard line only to lose possession on its fifth fumble of the contest.

With several long drives, the Trojans managed to amass 299 total yards compared to 375 for North Boone. Kiandre Morris gained 130 yards on 18 carries for the Trojans, while Bokus picked up 76 yards in 16 attempts. Prusator completed three passes, all to Bokus. North Boone’s Morris connected on eight passes to five different receivers.