For a good chunk of Friday’s first half, senior quarterback Brendan Morrissey was looking for receivers.
And looking. And looking. And looking.
A few times he wound up on his back as Lincoln-Way East didn’t score in the first quarter against Joliet West.
“We just came out flat,” Morrissey said. “We’ve got to really work on coming out fast.”
They’ll have another chance thanks to a 44-0 victory in a Class 8A playoff opener in Frankfort.
Morrissey completed 13 of 16 passes for 181 yards and four touchdowns for the Griffins (10-0). Ryan Scianna ran 18 times for 89 yards and a TD.
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“This is special,” Morrissey said. “Obviously, it’s a great first round win. Now we have to keep it going in the second round.”
The rout followed a stunning first quarter in which the Griffins saw their first drive end with a missed field goal, the second with Morrissey being sacked at the West 37, and the third near midfield.
It was on the Griffins’ fourth possession that they started to roll.
Morrissey took East 71 yards — although a large portion of them were chewed up on runs by Scianna. The biggest gainer for Scianna was for 13 yards, setting up a first down at the Tiger 23.
“He always runs hard,” Morrissey said of Scianna. “He’s reliable and he’s going to get you the hard-fought yards. It’s always great to have him out there.”
Two plays later, Morrissey found 6-foot-2 wide receiver Evan McDermed in the end zone for a 22-yard TD.
It was like flipping a switch.
Joliet West fumbled on its next play from scrimmage, with defensive end Devin O’Rourke scooping the ball up for East at the Tiger 17.
“I saw one of my teammates come in and hit (the runner),” O’Rourke said. “He was backed up. I came in and hit him and saw the ball come loose and dove on it.”
Scianna appeared to score on a 15-yard run, but a holding penalty pushed the ball back to the 22.
No problem.
On the next play, Morrissey spotted Matt Judd for a passing TD.
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East’s third scoring drive was set up by a 36-yard punt return by Dugan Bolsoni to the West 17. Scianna ran four straight times, scoring from the 6 as the Griffins went up 21-0.
Just 54.1 seconds remained at the half, but East burned all three timeouts and forced a West punt. It never happened as a bad snap resulted in the Griffins getting the ball at the 7.
Two plays later, Morrissey threw a floater to Jackson Ritter for a 3-yard TD.
What was a scoreless tie halfway through the second quarter was suddenly an East runaway.
Morrissey threw a 15-yard TD pass to Turner Pallissard and Jordan Corbett added a 3-yard TD run to start the running clock. East’s defense kept the seal on the shutout.
“We really wanted to get that zero on the board,” O’Rourke said. “We’ve shut down teams, but they’ve always scored on us, so we played with a little bit of an edge (Friday).”
Twitter @tbaranek
