The Hubs varsity football team handed Morris its first loss of the season in 2016, and Rochelle will be looking to do the same when the boys head south for another tough conference matchup with the Redskins.
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ROCHELLE — The Hubs varsity football team handed Morris its first loss of the season in 2016, and Rochelle will be looking to do the same when the boys head south for another tough conference matchup with the Redskins.
Morris brought a 3-0 record to Rochelle Township High School last year before falling to the Hubs by a score of 21-14. But after beating down DuSable, Washington and Quincy Notre Dame by a combined score of 118-22 to begin the 2017 season, the Redskins are once again unbeaten, and they will have the home edge when Rochelle comes to town Friday evening.
“They look more like a college team than a high school team,” head coach Kevin Crandall said. “They’re averaging about 280 pounds across the front and they have a 250-pound fullback. They rotate about three tailbacks, and overall they just have really good personnel.”
While the Redskins will be without graduated quarterback Ricky Del Favero, who rushed for two touchdowns against Rochelle in last year’s game, Morris is returning a slew of offensive starters from 2016 including senior wide receiver Payton Voitik, who returned a kickoff for a touchdown against Washington earlier this season.
Senior running back Kameron Dransfeldt rushed for 167 yards in the Morris victory over Washington, and junior fullback Tyler Petty, the 5-foot-8-inch, 250-pounder Crandall mentioned previously, bowled over Quincy Notre Dame defenders to help the Redskins win 41-12 this past weekend. Junior Mitchell Mayberry will be under center for Morris.
“Their first choice is always to run down your throat,” Crandall said. “They’ll try and spread you out if they have to… If they have success running the ball, they’ll keep running the football. If they don’t, they’ll get into some of their other stuff.”
Morris edged out Rochelle in total yardage last season, outgaining the Hubs 281-222. But the purple and white jumped on Morris early, with Alex Harvey rushing for 134 yards and one touchdown on 17 carries. The Hubs led the Redskins 21-7 entering the fourth quarter before Morris scored its second touchdown and came within 6 yards of scoring again. Rochelle forced two incompletions and held Morris to 2 rushing yards on its final series of downs.
“We played extremely well on both sides of the ball even though we were at a big size disadvantage,” Crandall said. “We were more physical than they were, and we were able to hold on at the end. We made a couple of big plays in the fourth quarter.”
Notable returning defenders for Morris include senior linebacker Kaden Laurie and senior defensive lineman Avery Hoffman, who combined for 10 tackles in last year’s matchup. Rochelle dominated its next two opponents (Ottawa and Geneseo) by a total score of 72-0 after topping Morris in 2016, and the Hubs are looking to ignite another strong stretch by taking down the Redskins this Friday.
“We have to be physical and our backs have to run hard,” Crandall said. “It’d be nice to get our third win and stay on a roll, but it’s still early in the season and we just want to play as well as we can and stay healthy.”