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MORRIS — Entering Friday night’s game against Woodstock, Morris quarterback Carter Button was tied for the school’s career record for touchdown passes in a career with 40.
Button didn’t waste any time in going past the mark he shared with Todd Schultz, completing a 9-yard touchdown pass on the game’s opening drive to AJ Zweeres.
Zweeres was chasing a record of his own, as he needed 46 yards to become the school’s all-time receiving yards leader. He got that mark in spectacular fashion later in the first quarter of Morris’ 48-7 Kishwaukee River/Interstate Eight Blue win.
Morris (7-0, 4-0) led 14-0 and forced a Woodstock punt. Zweeres returned it 40 yards to the end zone, but the play was called back due to a block in the back. On first down from the Blue Streaks’ 47, Button dropped back and lofted a ball deep to Zweeres. The Morris receiver leaped high to catch the ball over the defender’s head, stayed on his feet, and went the rest of the way into the end zone.
“On that play, I just kept my eye on the ball and watched it all the way into my hands,” Zweeres said. “Carter always puts the ball in a good spot for me to catch it.”
That put Morris ahead 21-0, and the defense did the rest.
Woodstock did not run a play from the Morris side of the field in the first half, and the Morris defense held the Blue Streaks to just 30 yards of offense in the first half while the offense built a 42-0 lead and secured a running clock for the second half.
The Morris defense asserted itself from the start. On Woodstock’s first play, Morris linebacker Blaine Beshoar came free on a blitz and sacked quarterback Caden Thompson for a four-yard loss.
“We knew they had a young quarterback,” Beshoar said. “Our defensive coordinator [Ryan Clauson] wanted to send a lot of pressure. Our defensive line did a great job of occupying their offensive linemen, and that let our linebackers come free.
“It’s nice to know that our offense is going to score and give us a lead to play with. Once we get up a few scores, it takes some pressure off of us.”
Button finished 8 for 8 through the air for 136 yards and three touchdowns. Besides the two TDs to Zweeres (5 catches, 80 yards), he also threw a 36-yard TD pass to Jack Wheeler (two catches, 58 yards). Jacob Swartz ran 14 times for 109 yards and two touchdowns, Zweeres had a 78-yard punt return for a touchdown and Cadeen Curran capped the scoring with a 17-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.
Woodstock’s lone score came in the fourth quarter on a six-yard run by Thompson, who completed 7 of 12 for 130 yards.
“We got behind early and you can’t do that against the quality of team and program that Morris has,” Woodstock coach Mike Basile said. “We made some mistakes blocking early and they hurt us with their blitzes.
“Their quarterback is awfully good and he has a lot of good receivers. I told the kids that you either win or you learn. Hopefully we learned some things from Morris tonight that we can work on and fix before Johnsburg next week.”
Morris coach Alan Thorson had no complaints about his team’s performance.
“After a big win last week [35-7 over Richmond-Burton], as a coach you are worried about being flat the next week,” Thorson said. “The kids really kept their focus well and played very well. This offense might be the most explosive we have had in my 12 years as coach.
“And our defense just keeps getting better every week. Every week, we raise our level of physicality. The whole defense played great tonight. Our linebackers were outstanding and the defensive line has just been dominating. And, we got a special teams touchdown tonight. It was a good game in all phases.”