DIVISION 3-A CHAMPIONSHIP : Morse’s Victory Feels a Little Extra Special

Coaches say it all the time and no one really believes it, not until something like this happens.

San Diego Section championship game. Eight thousand people in the stadium. The punt goes up, it bounces once, it bounces twice. It nearly comes to a stop.

And then you try to pick it up.

And you can’t.

That’s what happened Friday night at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, where Morse took advantage of some special teams miscues and scored a 12-3 victory over Poway to win its third 3-A title in five years.

The victory made Morse only the second team in section history to finish 14-0. The only other team was the 1990 Morse team, regarded by many as the county’s best ever.

“This (title) meant a lot,” said Morse Coach John Shacklett, whose teams have 172 victories in 22 years. “We had to rely on a lot of young kids and they came through. We only had four kids coming back who had any appreciable playing time.”

Unlike the high-powered 1990 squad, this team’s strength was its defense, but the Tigers were actually out-gained by Poway, 222 yards to 163, including a 68-39 edge in a defensive second half.

The difference was the special teams’ play, which wasn’t so special for Poway.

Joe Enyeart, who last week stripped the ball from Mt. Carmel running back Marlin Carey and carried the ball to the one-yard line to set up the game’s only touchdown, instead felt the wrath of Lady Luck this week.

After Poway’s defense held Morse at its own 33, Conan Smith punted. The ball took a big hop, and Enyeart, the deep man, let it drop. He eventually maneuvered his way behind the ball, but with the cover men bearing down on him and the ball nearly coming to a stop, Enyeart tried to pick it up. Instead, the ball slipped from his hands, and Elizio Bodden recovered at the Poway 13.

Five plays later, the Tigers scored on a one-yard sneak by quarterback Ray Barnes. Brian Roberts kicked the extra point to make it 7-0 with 11:25 left in the second quarter.

It completed a blessed series of possessions for Morse. Earlier, with the Tigers ready to punt, Smith dropped the snap but scrambled 17 yards for a first down.

Enyeart also muffed a punt off his chest in the third quarter that established the field position that eventually led to a Morse safety.

Randall Speir recovered the fumble at the Poway 14. Though Morse turned the ball over on downs, the Tiger defense pushed Poway back nine yards and got a safety when Bodden and Scott Johnson tackled fullback Russ Fouts in the end zone. That made it 12-3 with 1:31 left in the third quarter.

Enyeart couldn’t be reached after the game, having already left for the team bus, but Poway Coach John Self thought the mistake was the offspring of zealous determination.

“We told them at halftime to play our game plan, to carry out our technique, and don’t try to make things happen,” Self said. “I think it was trying to make things happen that caused the problems there. You have people trying too hard to make things happen where, if we had played our ball game, we’d have been right in there.

“It was very frustrating, very disappointing, because we really believed we could win this ball game. Without a doubt.

“We knew we could win, we knew we could pass on them, knew we could shut down the run. But playing in a big stadium for the first time, the kids tried too hard and that was the difference in the outcome in the game.”

Poway (10-4)--which finished a turnaround from a 2-8 season--did all those things, at least in the first half. Travis Nichols completed eight of his first 11 passes for 106 yards, and the defense limited Morse’s two 1,200-yard rushers, Archie Amerson (55 yards) and Smith (47) in check.

But Morse turned up the pass rush in the second half, and Nichols finished nine of 20 for 111 yards. He was sacked three times.

Amerson, averaging 7.1 yards per carry, finished with 19 carries for 88. Smith, averaging 8.1 per carry, rushed 18 times for 61.

Both teams had 25-yard field goals. Roberts’ first of the year gave Morse a 10-0 lead with 6:22 left in the second quarter after a 63-yard drive stalled at the eight. Included were Amerson gains of 29 and 18 yards.

Matt Turner made it 10-3 with 1:56 to go. His field goal came after Poway’s 75-yard drive stalled at the seven-yard line. It prevented Morse from securing its sixth shutout.

That wasn’t the only time Poway got deep in Morse territory. At the 12 on their opening drive, Nichols threw an ill-advised pass to Jeff Pattison (five catches for 67 yards) that was intercepted at the seven by Gervy Alota.

“They were a whole lot better than we expected,” said Smith, who also had a fourth-quarter interception at the Morse 15 and was making his third championship appearance. “but when I dropped that snap (on the punt) and got the first down, I felt like it was going to be our night.”