MCHS Tigers dominate Jeanerette in scrimmage

The Morgan City High School football team dominated offensively and defensively in its scrimmage with Jeanerette Friday, scoring four times and shutting out Jeanerette.
In the scrimmage, which featured first- and second-team work, some special teams action, but no live quarter, Morgan City got touchdowns from Malik Phillips and Clifton Escort in first-team action, while Kalen Hillen scored two second-team touchdowns for Morgan City. The Tigers got another touchdown on the second-team on offense when Isiah Escort connected with sophomore Logan Tingle.
“Offensively, I thought we struggled a little bit with a few penalties,” Morgan City head coach Scott Tregle said. “We got it rolling towards the end. We came at them pretty good. … We’re just missing too many blocks and especially on our pass protection, we’re kind of not stepping into our gaps and protecting well.”
Defensively, the Tigers bent and gave up some plays but never allowed Jeanerette to score.
“Defensively, I thought we ran to the ball good,” Tregle said. “We played hard. We still missed a few assignments, but that’s to be expected for a scrimmage.”
On Jeanerette’s first possession, Justin Royston connected with Toddrick Paul for an 18-yard gain and a first down, and while Ahmad Mitchell had a nice run for a first down later in the possession, it was negated by a penalty.
During second-team action, Morgan City’s Tyler Hebert and Cain Naquin combined for a sack of Jeanerette’s quarterback during the action.
When Morgan City’s first-team offense, quarterbacked by Abram Hartley, hit the field, it didn’t take long for the Tigers to reach the end zone.
While a nice run by Phillips was nearly all wiped away via a penalty, Phillips followed with a 79-yard run for a touchdown to highlight the Tigers’ first play block with its top offense.
In Morgan City’s first series for its second team, Hillen raced 68 yards for a touchdown.
Also during the series, Isiah Escort connected with Jared Hawkins, who made a nice catch for a long completion past midfield.
Isiah Escort and Alex Brocato worked with the Tigers’ second-team offense.
In the Tigers’ second play block for its first-team offense, Phillips reeled off a 23-yard run but couldn’t stay in bounds.
Jeanerette was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the drive and Ethan Scioneaux and Phillips followed with seven-yard runs apiece before Escort scored on a 2-yard run.
Later in the play block, Hillen made a nice play as he hauled in a pass by Hartley that went awry near the line of scrimmage and turned it into a nice play. However, the play was called back via penalties on both sides of the ball.
However, Hillen followed it up with a 28-yard run.
In second-team action, Hillen had a 60-yard touchdown run that was called back near the end of the run at the 5-yard line via a block-in-the-back penalty.
One play later, though, Isiah Escort connected with Tingle on a 15-yard touchdown pass.
Hillen also had a 65-yard touchdown run on the final play of Morgan City’s second-team work.
Jeanerette had more success on its second drive as Ahmad Mitchell recorded gains of 13 yards and 25 yards, while Royston connected with Paul for a 13-yard gain.
Taaj Daniels picked off a pass during the drive and appeared as if he would have returned it for a touchdown, but the play was blown dead.
Morgan City’s first-team defense recorded a sack on its final play block of the game, while Phillips and Clifton Escort gained positive yardage on the Tigers’ offense’s last series on the first team, including about a 22-yard gain by Escort on the second-to-last play.
Jeanerette coach Edwin Pierre said he thought his team did OK but could have done much better.
He noted his defense was short-handed with about five starters missing.
“I’m glad we did this to learn,” Pierre said. “It was a good learning tool, because a lot of our teams in our district run the Wing T, so it’s going to give us a good learning curve.”