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Morgan’s elite defense has often taken a backseat to its equally elite offense this year.
Even though the defense has shut out six teams this year, offense dominates the headlines, and Morgan had done a lot of that this season having scored 593 points heading into Saturday’s 3A state championship game.
Turns out, the undefeated Trojans needed every bit of that elite defense against fellow undefeated Richfield.
Morgan was held in check offensively most of the game, but its defense absolutely bottled up Richfield to snap the Wildcats’ 25-game winning streak en route to the 3A state championship with the 13-2 victory at Southern Utah University.
“There’s a lot of unselfishness with this group. They were so focused on the team goal that it didn’t matter how we did it, who we did it with, they just wanted to make sure we won it with the team,” said Morgan coach Jared Barlow, whose team has won two of the last three 3A state championships.
Morgan finished the season averaging a whopping 46.6 points per game offensively while allowing only 6.3 points per game defensively.
Defensive standout Nik Preece, donning a Morgan state championship baseball cap that was passed out after the game, said limiting Richfield to just two points speaks volumes about Morgan’s elite defense this year.
“Just being tough, going out and hitting them hard. They had pretty good runners. We just rallied to the ball, made sure they didn’t get any yards and fought hard through all the plays,” said Preece.
“It’s amazing we only allowed two points in the state championship game.”
Statistically it was a fairly even game, with Morgan outgaining Richfield slightly, 276 to 224. The Trojans, however, made a couple more big plays when they presented themselves to polish off the ninth state championship in school history.
Incredibly, in matchup of two of the highest scoring teams in 3A, all the scoring happened in the first half — and there wasn’t much of that either.
It was a strange first half for Morgan with a mix of great plays, but also turnovers in bad spots and an untimely penalty that led to a Richfield safety and an early 2-0 lead with 2:10 remaining in the first quarter.
The bright spots were Morgan’s two impressive scoring drives. The first was capped by a 27-yard touchdown pass from Beck Sheffield to Lincoln Gilson early in the second quarter for the 7-2 lead.
On Morgan’s final drive of the half, it again capitalized on a short field with Sheffield capping the 7-play, 51-yard drive with a 3-yard burst on the middle untouched for the 13-2 lead after the missed extra point.
“Being able to get that score at the end of the half was going to be a big momentum shift for us and we knew that, so we told them it’s important just to get the ball in,” said Barlow.
Even though it was a rather sloppy first half, Barlow told his players that if they took care of the ball in the second half and continued to play well defensively they’d be fine.
“Just make sure they understand what assignments were. (Richfield’s) got great athletes. Richfield has done a great job. They’ve coached well up there, we just gave ‘em tendencies and told them to take care of the basic, simple things we’ll finish the game in a happy place,” said Barlow.
Richfield’s offense only touched the ball three times in the second half, the first ending in a punt at midfield and the last two on downs in Morgan territory. Both of the last two were on fourth and short and Morgan’s defense stuffed runs up the middle.
The last failed fourth down attempt occurred with 7:05 remaining in the game. When Morgan took over possession, Barlow had a simple message for his team.
“The best thing we can have right now is a seven-minute drive, put the game away. We don’t need any points, all we need right now is to get it to double zeros and that’s what we did,” said Barlow.
Sheffield finished the game with 119 passing yards to go along with his 63 rushing yards on 15 attempts. Drew Korth added 76 yards on the ground on 14 carries.
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