Morris’ fourth-down success, stifling defense take care of La Salle-Peru

MORRIS – With the Morris offense coming into its Kishwaukee River/Interstate 8 White game with La Salle-Peru averaging over 45 points per game and putting up another 40 Friday on the Cavaliers, the work the Morris defense does could get lost in the shuffle.

Not Friday night.

Morris held playoff contender La Salle-Peru to 92 yards from scrimmage and didn’t allow the Cavaliers inside the Morris 42-yard line all evening during a 40-0 shutout.

“So we have a great defense this year, and all the guys are doing a great job,” said senior defensive end Carter Laudeman, who recorded a quarterback sack and recovered an L-P fumble. “We have a new defensive coordinator [Ryan Clauson], who’s doing amazing, and it’s just a great group of guys.

“We can really shut some teams down.”

Morris moves to 5-0 overall, 3-0 in the KR/I-8 White.

“I don’t think people give our defense enough credit, just based off of, I think, the reputation our offense has, that we score,” Morris coach Alan Thorson said. “This is a tough defense. A lot of the points [we’ve allowed] this year have come on our backups and stuff like that.

“These guys kind of took this one personal. L-P is a conference opponent, it’s a rivalry game, and the fact that they switched offenses, we heard a lot about their explosive offense. We challenged our guys: ‘What are you going to do against that this week?’ And the guys really did a good job.”

L-P falls to 3-2 overall, 1-1 in conference play.

“Our defense played tough tonight,” L-P coach Jose Medina said. “We just couldn’t get off the field. [Morris] is a good football program. They’re a good team ... and they did everything they had to do to win the game today.

‘They were bringing a lot of pressure, and we were holding onto the ball a little too long. That’s something we need to work on ... but it is what it is. We move on to next week.”

The Morris offense was indeed as good as advertised, racking up 424 yards from scrimmage. Leading the attack were RB Jacob Swartz (16 carries for 126 yards and two touchdowns), QB Carter Button (13 of 22 for 228 yards ands three TDs) and receivers Ethan Mumbrue (seven catches for 47 yards), A.J. Zweeres (four receptions for 140 yards and two TDs) and Ryan Shear (one catch, a 13-yard touchdown).

Just as key as all those yards was the hosts’ success on fourth down. Morris was 4 of 5 on fourth-down conversions in the game, including 3 of 3 in the first half — converting from 9, 3 and 4 yards — on drives that ended up in lead-building touchdowns.

“It’s a confidence we have in both sides,” Thorson said, “knowing that our defense can hold them if we don’t get it, but knowing we’ve got the weapons we do.”

Not to be outdone was the performance put in by the Morris defense, an effort led by Laudeman’s aforementioned sack and fumble recovery, a Sam Mateski interception, quarterback sacks courtesy of Vaughn Mills and Merek Klicker and nine tackles for loss, including a pair by junior defensive lineman Omarion Miller.

Morris scored on its first five possessions to build a 26-0 halftime advantage, then on the second play of the second half saw Button hit Zweeres in stride across the middle of the field for a 76-yard catch-and-run touchdown. Zweeres’ 30-yard end-around run into the end zone with 6:53 left in the third quarter — another successfully converted fourth down — followed by Connor Ahearn’s fourth true PAT kick started the running clock.

QB Brendan Boudreau was 4-of-9 passing for 27 yards and rushed for 24 more, both team-highs for La Salle-Peru. Defensively, Nolan Glynn and Ryder Delphi each recovered fumbles, with Glynn adding one of the team’s four tackles for loss.

The Cavaliers visit Woodstock in Week 6.

Morris will host its second game of a three-game homestand with an intriguing KR/I-8 crossover against Richmond-Burton.