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WEST LIBERTY Junior Cameron Rodgers accounted for over 300 total yards, including 206 on the ground and 91 on kick returns, as host Morgan County captured its first three-game win streak since 2012 with a 62-22 win over Fairview on Friday night at Herdman Field.
“I think we executed pretty well offensively,” Rodgers said. “Defensively, I still think we’ve got some work to do, you know, flying to the ball and gang tackling of course. Other than that, we played a really great game today.”
Morgan County (3-1) got off to a quick start. On its second play from scrimmage, Rodgers ran through the middle of the line and broke free for a 49-yard touchdown just 35 seconds into the contest. Despite that quick score, most of the first quarter did not have the feel of a contest that would feature an 84-point offensive outburst.
With five minutes left in the first period, the hosts held an 8-0 advantage. By the end of the quarter, the score was 32-8 in favor of the Cougars.
First, Morgan County put together a nine-play, 69-yard, four-minute-and-six-second scoring drive capped off by a Rodgers 1-yard run. He then added the 2-point conversion.
Fairview (0-4) had its longest drive of the night, 65 yards, with most of the yardage coming from the arm of freshman quarterback Jace Manning. After catching a Manning pass in the middle of the field, Xavien Kouns broke to the right sideline to notch a 21-yard score. Manning then connected with Roman Mayes for the 2-point conversion.
It took just 10 seconds for the Cougars to counter. After an onside kick gave the hosts the ball on their 45-yard line. Rodgers ran through the middle of the line, cut to the right sideline, and out-ran the Eagle defense to the end zone.
Cooper Fleming intercepted a pass for Morgan County and returned it 24 yards to the Eagles’ 29-yard line. On the next play, Chance Wright ran the ball in for the score.
The first-quarter scoring ended there with the two teams combining for 32 points in a span of just two minutes and 23 seconds.
Morgan County added to its lead in the second quarter. Rodgers supplied a 69-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Joe Spencer hit Bradley Nickell for a 39-yard touchdown pass. Rodgers took a pitch from Spencer on the Cougars’ next possession and sprinted 37 yards for another TD.
“Honestly, I don’t like taking all of the credit,” Rodgers said. “I do like giving my ‘fatties’ (on the offensive line) some love. So, I do have to give it to them, too. I think it’s a team effort.”
Kouns added another touchdown catch in the second quarter for the Eagles.
Although the offense was the highlight, Morgan County coach Mark Easterling found positives in other areas as well.
“I like the fact that we were able to adjust early,” Easterling said. “We’d run a lot of counters last week and they were sold out to stop that. So once we’d seen that that wasn’t working, we were able to kind of formation the field a little bit to get the matchups that we wanted and the numbers on our side. And even though we hadn’t practiced it a whole lot, the kids went with it well. So, I think our adjustments to stuff went really well tonight and paid off big.”
Fairview coach Brent Wilcoxon did not mince words describing his team’s play in the first 24 minutes.
“We just didn’t show up in the first half. That’s the bottom line,” he said.
Fairview showed some life in the third quarter. After Kouns returned the opening kickoff 50 yards, the Eagles needed four plays to get back into the end zone. Again Kouns came up big on a fourth-down play catching a Manning passing inside the right corner pylon for a 16-yard score with 8:47 left in the period.
“(Number) three is a playmaker for us,” Wilcoxen said. “It’s Xavien Koons and (number) 14 is a freshman quarterback (Manning) and he had some nice throws. We’re young. … From Day 1 to this game, we have six starters out with injuries with three ineligibles. So, we’re minus a lot of bodies. So, it’s a tough row to hoe when you are minus that many folks at a small school like ours. But like I said. It’s a tale of two halves for me. The lesson of the game I told them was, from now on we’ve got to start the game like we played in the third quarter and not wait for the second half to actually do that.”
With mostly reserves in the game, the Cougars added one final score on a 21-yard run by Conner Fleming midway through the fourth quarter. The hosts finished with 371 yards of total offense.
“(I’m) very pleased and the line played extremely well,” Easterling said. “Cameron Rodgers had another huge game. I think he had close to 175, 180 yards (rushing), and four more touchdowns. So, when that kid gets rolling like that, gets playing downhill, (it) opens up a lot of things for us. I’m very pleased with our offense tonight.”
“You can tell it all the way though,” he added. “This is the first time since Covid that we’ve had our youth leagues back up and going. So, we’re getting a lot of numbers back out. Things are starting to turn around, but it’s been a process. … But, the kids have bought into it. They’ve stayed the course and I’m just proud to be a part of it.”
Rodgers concurred.
“(The streak) means a lot to me, because when I first came out here my freshman year, we had a decent team,” Rodgers said. “And then my sophomore year, we (weren’t) that good and it really brought my confidence level down. But now I feel like we’ve got a pretty good shot to take it (all the way through the season).”
Manning finished the night 10-for-21 for 191 yards. Kouns had five receptions for 85 yards.
Despite the lopsided outcome, Wilcoxon still found some positives in his club’s play.
“We didn’t come ready to play in the first half and we didn’t tackle well,” Wilcoxen said. “We were horrible in the first half. Yet, (in) the second half … we weren’t really outclassed as much as the score says that we were. And they actually kept their starters in the third quarter and were trying to score, throwing the ball and everything, and we outscored them in the third quarter 8-0. That didn’t seem like it could even be possible when you give up 50-some points in the first half and then shut them out in a whole quarter.”
FAIRVIEW 8 6 8 0 — 22
MORGAN CO. 32 22 0 8 — 62
FIRST QUARTER
MC — Cameron Rodgers 49-yard run (Chance Wright run), 11:25 8-0
MC — Rodgers 1-yard run (Rodgers run), 4:57 16-0
F — Xavien Kouns 21-yard pass from Jace Manning (Roman Mayes pass from Manning), 3:16 16-8
MC — Rodgers 55-yard run (Joe Spencer pass from Bradley Nickell), 3:06 24-8
MC — Wright 29-yard run (Spencer pass from Nickell), 2:34 32-8
SECOND QUARTER
F — Kouns 44-yard pass from Manning (pass failed), 10:13 32-14
MC — Rodgers 69-yard kick return (run failed), 10:02 38-14
MC — Spencer 39-yard pass from Nickell (Spencer pass from Nickell), 4:11 46-14
MC — Rodgers 37-yard run (Spencer pass from Nickell), 1:52 54-14
THIRD QUARTER
F — Kouns 16-yard pass from Manning (Mayes pass from Manning), 8:47 54-22
FOURTH QUARTER
MC — Conner Fleming 21-yard run (Fleming run), 6:25 62-22
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