Morgan City tops Berwick 26-7

It certainly wasn’t a perfect performance, but Morgan City overcame its own miscues on offense and defense en route to a 26-7 victory against Berwick.
Morgan City and Berwick struggled with penalties as the teams were flagged a combined 37 times for 346 yards. Morgan City, which had several roughing-the-passer penalties, had 21 penalties for 220 yards, while Berwick had 16 penalties for 126 yards.
Morgan City coach Scott Tregle said his team’s penalties are a matter of his team finding out what they are and are not allowed to do.
“We can tell them all we want, and we work on tackling low, not hitting the quarterback high, and we’re doing the same stuff,” he said. “We just got to keep pounding it into their heads ‘you can’t hit them above the shoulders anymore.’”
“Ridiculous” was how Berwick High coach Craig Brodie described his team’s problems with penalties.
“We have to clean that up,” he said. “There was a lot of facemasks, and that means they’re grabbing. It all goes back to doing the right things, and early season like this, you’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to jump offside. You’re going to do some things that you’re not going to do later on, but it’s things that we need to work on. There wasn’t a whole lot of good that went on tonight, and it just shows us where we’re at right now, and we have to get better.”
The miscues began early as a large chunk of a nice kickoff return by Morgan City’s Scott Comeaux into Berwick territory was negated due to a holding penalty, while Berwick was assessed a five-yard penalty on its first offensive play.
While both teams reached the other team’s territory on their first drive of the game, including a 30-yard pass play by Collin Louviere to standout wide receiver Kenan Jones on the Panthers’ first pass attempt, neither team could reach the end zone initially.
Berwick’s opening drive ended at the Morgan City 38 when Lloyd Singleton picked off Louviere and returned the ball to the Berwick 48.
From there, the Tigers moved down the field for their first score, capped by a 23-yard pass from Abram Hartley to Makye Richard with 3:01 remaining in the first quarter. Miguel Perez extra point attempt was no good, and Morgan City led 6-0.
Hartley completed 2-of-7 passes in the game for 46 yards and a touchdown in the Tigers’ run-heavy offense.
Richard led the Tigers’ receivers with two catches for 35 yards and a touchdown.
After a defensive stop on Berwick’s next series, Morgan City got the ball again in excellent position after tackling Berwick punter Beau Boudreaux for a four-yard loss at the Berwick 35.
From there, Morgan City used a 10-play drive, capped by a 3-yard run by Clifton Escort, to score its next touchdown. The extra point by Perez was good for a 13-0 Morgan City lead with 7:36 remaining.
Neither team made serious movement with the football for much of the remainder of the first half.
However, Berwick threatened late in the first half after recovering a muffed punt by Morgan City’s Comeaux at the Morgan City 49.
Mitchell Sanford, who rotated with Louviere at quarterback, completed a 13-yard pass on second down to Jones for a first down at the Morgan City 36.
However, Sanford recovered a fumble for a 7-yard loss on first down, and after completing a pass for 6 yards to Audwin Williams on second down, his third-down pass was incomplete and the first half clock ran out.
In the second half, neither team could punch the ball into the end zone until Morgan City went on a drive that began at its own 35 and concluded with a 10-yard touchdown run by Phillips.
The extra point by Perez was no good, but Morgan City now led 19-0 with 5:45 remaining.
Phillips led Morgan City’s 189-yard rushing attack with 12 carries for 99 yards and a touchdown.
After Berwick took over at its 11 on its next drive, the possession quickly ended as Singleton picked off Louviere at the Berwick 23 on second down and returned it for a touchdown. The extra point by Perez was good for a 26-0 Morgan City lead with 4:47 remaining.
Later in the fourth quarter, Berwick used Morgan City penalties and plays on offense to move the ball down the field for its lone touchdown of the night.
On third down at the Berwick 32, Berwick moved into Morgan City territory after Sanford connected with Joshua Carver for a 13-yard pass play. A 15-yard personal foul penalty on Morgan City was tacked onto the end of the play, giving the Panthers a first down at the Morgan City 40.
With the drive still going early in the fourth quarter, Sanford completed a 12-yard pass on a third-and-10 situation to Cody Roberie on a play in which Roberie made a nice diving catch at the Morgan City 28. Morgan City was flagged for a late hit on Roberie at the end of the play, moving the ball to the Morgan City 13.
From there, Berwick initially began to move backwards via a false start penalty and a 4-yard loss on second down by Sanford
After an incomplete pass on third down, Sanford connected with Roberie for a 22-yard touchdown strike on a fourth-and-19 situation. Boudreaux’s extra point was good with 10:27 remaining for what proved to be the final margin of victory.
“I thought Mitchell Sanford did a great job,” Brodie said. “First time playing a high school football game. Throwing a touchdown pass.”
Sanford, a freshman, finished the game completing 8 of 24 passes for 103 yards and a score.
Morgan City finished the game with just 235 yards of total offense (189 rushing and 46 passing).
“I thought we had a good game play,” Tregle said. “We didn’t execute everything. We fumbled snaps from center (which) killed our drives. Obviously, we had probably 20-plus penalties that killed our drives. Put us back, and we’re fortunate to score 26 points.”
Brodie agreed that most of the game his defense did enough to keep the Panthers in the game, but the offense didn’t do its part.
“We got manhandled. Big time,” Brodie said. “They came off the ball faster than we did, and they just were more physical than we were.”
Berwick was limited to 111 yards of total offense (133 passing and -22 yards rushing).
Joshua Jones led the ground game with six carries for 13 yards.
Louviere completed 3 of 9 passes for 30 yards, but was intercepted three times.
While Berwick’s top receivers, Jones and Williams, caught passes, neither reached the end zone. Jones led the receivers for the Panthers with three catches for 46 yards, while Williams had one catch for 6 yards. Carver added two catches for 39 yards, while Roberie had two catches for 34 yards and one score.
“I knew Berwick was going to be tough,” Tregle said. “They’ve improved a lot since last year. They got a lot of good athletes, and we just wanted to keep the ball away from ’em, which I think we had like three-to-one possession time. Them not being able to run on us really helped us out because they had to throw the ball. I mean they hurt us with a lot of screens and stuff, but for the most part, I thought our kids played hard.”
Morgan City will return to action Friday when it hosts Sophie B. Wright.
Berwick will travel to face Abbeville Friday.

MCHS BHS
First downs: 14 10
Punts-avg: 2-27 2-15
Fumbles-lost: 3-1 5-0
Penalties-yards: 21-220 16-126
Total yards: 235 111
Passing yards: 46 133
Rushing yards: 189 -22
PA-C-HI: 8-2-0 33-11-3

Score by Quarters
MCHS: 6 7 13 0 -- 26
BHS 0 0 0 7 -- 07

Scoring Summary
First Quarter
MCHS: Abram Hartley, 23-yard pass to Makye Richard (Kick fail) 3:01.

Second Quarter
MCHS: Clifton Escort, 3-yard run. (Miguel Perez kick) 7:36.

Third Quarter
MCHS: Malik Phillips, 10-yard run. (Kick fail) 5:45.

MCHS: Lloyd Singleton, 23-yard interception return (Perez good) 4:47,

Fourth Quarter
Berwick: Mitchell Sanford, 22-yard pass to Cody Roberie (Perez kick) 10:20.

Morgan City Individual Stats
Rushing
Malik Phillips, 12-99 yards, TD; Kedrick Scott, 15-43 yards; Ethan Scioneaux, 5-32 yards; Clifton Escort, 3-7 yards, TD; Trey Derouen, 2-7 yards; Kalen Hillen, 2-2 yards; Abram Hartley, 5- (-1) yards

Passing
Abram Hartley, 2-of-7 for 46 yards, TD; Malik Phillips, 0-of-1 for 0 yards

Receiving
Makye Richard, 2-35 yards, TD; Robert Gould, 1-11 yds.

Berwick Individual Stats
Rushing
Joshua Jones, 6-13 yards; Collin Louviere, 2-5 yards; Darrin Robicheaux, 1- (-2) yards; Audwin Williams, 1- (-3) yards; Beau Boudreaux, 1- (-4) yards; Joshua Carver, 3- (-8) yards; Mitchell Sanford, 5- (-23) yards

Passing
Mitchell Sanford, 8-of-24 for 103 yards, TD; Collin Louviere, 3-of-9 for 30 yards, 3 INT.

Receiving
Kenan Jones, 3-46 yards; Joshua Carver, 2-39 yards; Cody Roberie, 2-34 yards, TD; Darrin Robicheaux, 1-8 yards; Audwin Williams, 1-6 yards; Tysin Meads, 2-0 yards