from the BCCT:
Friday football: Morrisville overwhelms Princeton (N.J.) Day School to go to 2-0
By JEAN-PAUL LAUTENSCHLAGER
Correspondent
PRINCETON, N.J. - Two victories in two weeks represents new territory for Morrisville’s football team.
The Bulldogs won two games in all of 2008. Now, they have two in two tries. Morrisville made it two in a row after a 37-7 triumph over Princeton (N.J.) Day School Friday night.
“When I was a freshman; we didn’t do good. When I was a sophomore; we didn’t do good. Now we’re starting off 2-0. We need more wins,” wide receiver Julian Walker said.
The junior connected with Matt Cookson for two touchdowns (55 and 16 yards) in the first half, giving the Bulldogs a lead they never relinquished.
Morrisville’s shotgun-spread offense looked unstoppable. Cookson passed for 164 yards in the first half, including the two scores.
The Panthers couldn’t keep a leash on the Bulldog running attack in the second half. Senior running back Ruben Bresnen capped off the first series after halftime with a five-yard run to push the lead to 24-7. Cookson followed with a four-yard scamper and senior Mike Jones rushed for 27 yards to put the game out of the Panthers’ reach.
“We came in here thinking - dogfight,” said senior lineman Zach Markgraf. “We have to play in the trenches with them.”
Morrisville’s defense won the battle at the line of scrimmage and allowed only 30 yards of total offense in the first half. Markgraf set the tone in the third quarter collecting three sacks, including back-to-back backfield stops quieting any thoughts of a PDS comeback.
“I just turned it on. Give a team no life and they don’t have any. I figured shut them down and we keep scoring,” the two-way player said. “If you keep playing like that, that’s how you have a winning squad.”
PDS held Morrisville to a Brandon Douglass 29-yard field goal on the opening drive and gained momentum on a broken play. On the next Bulldog series, the rain-soaked ball slipped out of Cookson’s grasp and into the arms of PDS defensive lineman Davon Reed, who returned the ball for the Panthers’ sole score.
“I’ve been saying since day one just like last year, what killed us was when a team scores, we gave up. This year when they scored everybody was like ‘OK let’s get back on ‘O’ and do what we do,’” Cookson said.
Five plays later Walker caught his first of five passes en route to the win. Cookson finished 13-for-21 passing for 289 yards. The Bulldogs combined for 165 yards rushing.
The reversal in team record is directly related to the Bulldogs’ morale. And the winning helps, too.
“We’re going to practice way hard again (next week)…and hopefully go 3-0 next week,” Markgraf said.
Jean-Paul Lautenschlager can be reached at jpradio@hotmail.com.
Morrisville 37, Princeton (N.J.) Day School 7
Morrisville…………………………. 10 7 14 6-37
Princeton Day School………………….. 7 0 0 0-7
Scoring Summary
M - FG Douglass 29
PDS - Reed 43 interception return (Kelly kick)
M - Walker 55 pass from Cookson (Douglass kick)
M - Walker 16 pass from Cookson (Douglass kick)
M - Bresnen 5 run (Douglass kick)
M - Cookson 4 run (Douglass kick)
M - Jones 27 run (kick failed)
Team Statistics
M PDS
First Downs 15 5
Yards Rushing 165 10
Yards Passing 289 54
Total Offense 454 64
Comp. Passes, Int 13-22-2 6-20-3
Fumbles-lost 2-1 1-1
Penalties-yards 11-70 5-35
Punts-Avg. 2-20.5 6-33.3
Sacked-Yds. Lost 3-18 5-40
Individual Statistics
Morrisville
Rushing: Bresnen 9-54, 1 TD; Cookson 15-48, 1 TD; Jones 5-32, 1 TD; Beyer 3-13; Walker 1-11; Alexander 1-7.
Passing: Cookson 13-21-1, 289 yards, 2 TDs; Wilcox 0-1-1.
Receiving: Walker 5-84, 2 TDs; Beyer 2-83; Melendez 3-61; Wilcox 3-51.
Interceptions: Walker, Melendez, Jones.
Princeton Day School
Rushing: Kelly 8-28; Herr 4-7; Meekins 5-(-1); Straus 2-(-6); Reynolds 11-(-18).
Passing: Reynolds 4-15-3, 30 yards; Straus 2-5-0, 24 yds.
Receiving: Dillon 2-24; Kelly 2-15; Reed 1-9; Gee 1-6.
Interceptions: Reed, Dillon.
