While Urbana High School made football history for the first time last week when the Tigers won their first playoff game ever, the Morris Redskins football team made a little history of its own on Saturday night.
Getting 317 yards rushing from running back Reese Sobol, the locals ran wild in the Class 5A second-round playoff game against the Tigers, racking up a record total for points in a playoff game in a 65-20 win. The previous total for playoff points scored by the Redskins came back in 1994 when they defeated Westinghouse 59-0 and the 65 point total is the most by Morris in a playoff game since a 53-6 win over Springfield Lanphier in 2004.
"I expected us to win coming in. I knew what our offense can do and I thought we'd take care of things the way we did," Sobol said after the game. "The 65 points is a surprise, but once we got going, we felt we could score every time we had the ball."
Which is just about what happened.
On the second play of the game, Morris scored on a 5-yard TD run by Collin Grogan.
After Urbana scored on the next series to take a brief 8-7 lead, Morris scored again on a 61-yard TD run by Sobol.
In the Redskins' third series, Sobol scored from 23 yards out.
The fourth offensive series, Sobol scored from 19 yards away.
Morris then mixed things up by getting a defensive touchdown from Danny Friend on a spectacular one-handed interception and return of 37 yards.
On the fifth offensive series, Grogan scored from 7-yards away and the locals then capped the half when quarterback Zach Cinnamon connected with Friend on a 13-yard TD pass as time expired. All of Fernando Del Toro's kicks were true and Grogan had a PAT run to account for Morris' 51-20 lead at halftime.
"Coach (John) Wodziak has done a tremendous job with the offensive line," Morris coach Alan Thorson said. "And we got another great game out of Reese. He's having an amazing senior year. It was a great win."
Morris scored in its first offensive series of the second half on a 34-yard TD run by Sobol and Cinnamon capped the scoring on the following series by hitting Jake Hogan on a 36-yard TD pass and Del Toro's kicks accounted for the 65th and final point of the day.
The 65 points in a game is the most by a Morris team since 2002 when the Redskins pasted Westmont 77-22 in a regular season game. The most points ever by Morris in a game came way back in 1914 when it defeated Spring Valley Hall 122-0 — a record likely never to be broken.
Sobol's rushing total of 317 yards in 22 carries is the second highest total by a Morris back ever, coming in behind John Dergo's amazing 20 carry, 354 yards he compiled in the Redskins 28-21 playoff win over Joliet Catholic Academy in 2005.
