Morton, Bears deliver gut punch to Wildcats

Sep. 27—GLADEVILLE — Wilson Central was within striking distance of Mt. Juliet seconds before halftime when Dearrius Morton delivered a gut punch to the Wildcats.

Morton then caved the roof in on Central in the second half as the Golden Bears rumbled to a 31-3 win.

The Wildcats had moved the ball well in the first half but failed to score, once getting stopped on the Mt. Juliet 1-yard line. With time ticking away in the first half, officials ruled Jase Neuble dropped a would-be touchdown pass in the end zone.

Coming out of Central's final timeout with 14 seconds left and facing third down at the Mt. Juliet 20, Coach Brad Dedman passed up a chance to take another shot at the end zone, sending Esteban Hurtado out for a field goal. After missing wide right 47 yards late in the first quarter, Hurtado drilled a 37-yarder to bring the Wildcats to within 7-3.

But there were still seven seconds left.

After Hurtado's kickoff went out of bounds at the 37, Morton took a pitch around the left side with an apparent intent of running out the clock. Instead he kept running until he reached the end zone 63 yards later with the buzzer having sounded to turn a 7-3 nailbiter into a 14-3 Golden Bear breather.

"We're looking for some positive momentum because we didn't have a very good first half," Mt. Juliet coach Trey Perry said after his Golden Bears improved to 4-1 for the season and 3-0 in Region 5-5A, good for sole possession of first place with Green Hill's loss at White County. "Dearrius did what Dearrius does. And we had a great edge set by Rayder Soto, our senior tight end, on the play which sort of sprung him. That was probably the turning point of the football game."

"To be honest, I thought there was more time on the clock than 14 seconds," Wildcats coach Brad Dedman said. "When I looked up there I thought it said 17-18. I thought we would have one more shot at a play and then spike it. But we got the 14 and we kicked the field goal there. I wish I had let the time run down, but that's just me. I got to do a better job of clock management."

As for Morton's touchdown?

"The way we lined up, we kind of helped them out with that play," Dedman said. "We had some people get blocked up front. Their offensive line did a really good job. The lead running back did a really good job of getting him in the open field and once he gets in the open field he's hard to bring down."

The Wildcats hurt themselves with two lost fumbles. The second was recovered by Dalton Murguia at the Mt. Juliet 30. The Bears turned that into a 40-yard Daniel Echeverria field goal for a 17-3 lead. Then the roof caved in. Osize Daniyan blocked Hurtado's punt. Morton scooped up the ball and raced around 15 yards for a 24-3 lead.

"We spend a lot of time," Perry said. "Coach (Chase) Howland, our defensive coordinator, is actually in charge of the punt block unit. We don't call it punt return for a reason.

"We've affected a punt or a field goal in every single game."

Dedman has seen it on video.

"They've been able to block punts all year long," Dedman said. "Just about every team they've played, they've blocked one. I guess we can add to that list."

Morton, who ran for 168 yards on 15 carries, finished the scoring with a 4-yard scoring sweep with 9:31 to play in the game.

Mt. Juliet jumped to an early lead. Tyler Travers hit Jon'Mikeal Crudup with a 44-yard pass to the Central 30 on the game's opening series. Harrison Edwards scored on a 28-yard run for a 7-0 lead less than three minutes in.

But the Wildcats didn't let the Bears get away from them that easily in the first half as they drove from their 32 to the Mt. Juliet 30 where Hurtado missed his field goal.

Mt. Juliet had back-to-back turnovers as linebacker Grant Rountree recovered a fumble and Mario Marshall intercepted a Travers pass. But the Wildcats, who gained the fumble at the Bear 10, were stopped on fourth and goal at the 1. Marshall got his pick at midfield three plays later on the second play of the second quarter.

Central lost a fumble of its own, but got the ball back at its 22 and ran off a 15-play drive to the Mt. Juliet 20 to set up Hurtado's field goal.

By game's end, the Wildcats had run for 167 yards and had 16 first downs to Mt. Juliet's 11. But Morton's big plays enabled the Bears to accumulate 243 rushing yards.

Amazingly, Mt. Juliet's Travers and Wilson Central's Gavin Mayfield each threw for 74 yards.

"First half, I thought we were able to keep them off balance," Dedman said after Central slipped to 1-5 for the season and 1-2 in the region. "Was able to move the football up and down the field to the 1-yard line. We got to make sure we can punch that play in. Then we didn't, we got to keep them on that end of the field, which they were able to flip the field on that particular drive.

"I thought we played really well in the first half. We had some people get hurt. We were probably running a little low players-wise and that just kind of caught up with us."

Both teams racked up the penalty yards as well. Mt. Juliet was flagged 10 times for 108 yards while the Wildcats were marched back 114 on 11 accepted infractions.

Both teams will remain in region action this week. The Golden Bears will play the first of three straight Thursday games when Station Camp visits Roger Perry Field/Elzie Patton Stadium for a 7 p.m. kickoff. Twenty-four hours later, White County, coming off the 21-20 win over Green Hill, will come to Wilson Central.