Morgan City scores big homecoming victory

For the second week in a row, Morgan City dominated its opponent with another resounding win, securing a 70-6 homecoming victory Friday against the Cohen College Prep Green Hornets.
The game began nearly the same way Morgan City’s previous game against North Central started with Scott Comeaux returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown. However, this time, the touchdown was called back after a penalty on the Tigers.
But Morgan City would score on its opening drive anyway on a 1-yard touchdown run by Kedrick Scott.
After scoring on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Abram Hartley to Ethan Scioneaux and a safety in the first quarter, the Tigers really got going in the second quarter.
Morgan City scored five touchdowns in the second quarter, one on a Gage Gros fumble recovery in Cohen’s end zone, two more touchdown runs by Scott, a Clifton Escort 10-yard run, and a 48-yard Malik Phillips run.
The Tigers went into halftime up 50-0.
Phillips scored on a 9-yard run in the third quarter before the Green Hornets got their only points of the game on a 56-yard touchdown run by quarterback Malik Lopez.
Trey Derouen added a 24-yard touchdown run as time expired in the third quarter, and Gros capped the Tigers’ scoring in the fourth quarter when he scored another touchdown on a fumble recovery.
Much like last week’s game, the referees kept a running clock most of the second half.
Morgan City accumulated 331 total yards, 283 on the ground.
Cohen, whose losing streak was extended to 34 games, had a mere 29 total yards and -25 yards rushing.
Morgan City coach Scott Tregle said he expected Cohen to give the Tigers much more competition than they did Friday night.
“They looked better on film against some different teams,” Tregle said.
The Tigers came out “kind of sluggish” in the first quarter, but then Morgan City started clicking on offense, Tregle said.
“Our defense just shut them completely down ... They just couldn’t get anything going,” Tregle said. “They couldn’t block us. They couldn’t pass protect. They couldn’t run the ball.”
Morgan City “had all the advantages the whole game,” Tregle said.
Cohen coach Perry McCarty said his team had “way too many mental mistakes.”
The Green Hornets have lots of young players, and many of their upperclassmen only have played football one or two years, McCarty said.
“We don’t match up well with teams that get up and run it straight at us,” McCarty said. “And that’s what Morgan City does best.”
Despite the big loss, Cohen wasn’t discouraged and will focus on getting better next week, McCarty said.
McCarty said he is optimistic about the rest of the team’s schedule as long the Green Hornets can keep their number of healthy players around 28 guys.
“We’re all limping around,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of injuries going on. So, if we can hang in there, we can win some games this year, and we’ll see how it all shakes out after that.”
Tregle kept his starters in a little longer than he normally would have to get the team ready for next week’s game road game against Westminster Academy, which will be against a much tougher opponent, he said.
With the win, Morgan City improves to 4-0 this season, the first time the Tigers have achieved that mark since 2012. During that 2012 season, the team lost its last five games of the season, Tregle said.
“Hopefully, we’ll keep it going and not do that,” Tregle said.
The rest of Morgan City’s schedule will be a lot more difficult than the first four games, he said.
“We’ve got to play harder. We’ve got to get better ... We’ve got to stay healthy, which was the purpose of the pre-district schedule,” Tregle said.
In 2014, Morgan City had a difficult pre-district schedule and began district play with “all kinds of injuries,” Tregle said.
“This year, we’re going to have full-force when we get in district, hopefully, and give us our best shot,” Tregle said.

MCHS CHS
1st downs 14 4
Rushing yards 283 -25
Passing yards 48 54
Total Yards 331 29
A-C-HI 7-3-0 14-3-3
Penalty-yds. 8-70 8-25
Fumbles-lost 1-0 8-3
Punts-avg. 0-0 0-0

Score by quarter
MCHS 15 35 13 7 = 70
CCPHS 0 0 6 0 = 6

Scoring summary
First Quarter
MCHS: Kedrick Scott 1-yard run. (run failed)

MCHS: Safety 4:50

MCHS: Abram Hartley 17-yard pass to Ethan Scioneaux. (Miguel Perez kick)

Second Quarter
MCHS: Gage Gros fumble recovery in end zone. (Mario Sanchez kick) 11:55

MCHS: Scott 1-yard run. (Perez kick) 7:30

MCHS: Clifton Escort 10-yard run. (Sanchez kick) 6:12

MCHS: Scott 5-yard run. (Perez kick) 1:24

MCHS: Malik Phillips 48-yard run. (Sanchez kick) 0:11

Third Quarter
MCHS: Phillips 9-yard run. (Perez kick) 7:00

CCPHS: Malik Lopez 56-yard run. (pass failed) 4:33

MCHS: Trey Derouen 24-yard run. (run failed) 0:00

Fourth Quarter
MCHS: Gage Gros 5-yard fumble return. (Perez kick) 7:30

Morgan City individual stats
Rushing
Malik Phillips, 5-89 2 TDs; Kedrick Scott, 12-83 3 TDs; Trey Derouen, 4-77 TD; Ethan Scioneaux, 4-20; Clifton Escort, 2-8 TD; Makye Richard, 1-6; Kalen Hillen, 1-1; Matt Griffin, 1-1; Abram Hartley, 1-(-2).

Passing
Abram Hartley, 3-7-0 48 yds. TD

Receiving
Ethan Scioneaux, 2-28 TD; Makye Richard, 1-20