Trojans End Football Season on Winning Note over St. Francis

The Tosa West Trojans finished their football season on a high note Friday night by defeating the St Francis Mariners 34-8. They treated their homecoming crowd with their best offensive performance of the year, a well-balanced passing and running attack with touchdowns scored by five different Trojans.

Tosa West scoring began with senior Amari Rushing electrifying fans with a 51-yard catch and run off a Jared Morzinski pass. Their next score came after West recovered a Mariner fumble, and on the next series junior Mickey Morgan scored on a 35-yard catch and run pass play. The crowd erupted as Morgan broke several tackles inside the 10 and just wouldn’t be denied the end zone. The biggest offensive play of the second quarter saw senior Tyler Gross go high in the air while closely covered to snare a 21-yard strike from Morzinski, down to the 12-yard line. Then sophomore Greg Lewis found space in the end zone where Morzinski delivered a 12-yard scoring pass. The halftime score was 20-0.

In the second half the Trojan pass game quieted down because the backs were finding lanes to run behind good blocking. Offensive line play was led by the strong work of seniors Brandon Moy, Seamus Boyd, and juniors Craig Egle, Adam Polivka and Sam Clough. Their work lead to touchdown runs of 33 and 37 yards by high-speed backs Develyn Ferguson and Reggie Cole.

The Trojan kicking game was good all night, as senior Stuart VanderVelde’s kickoffs kept the Mariners deep in their own territory, and Mickey Morgan converted 4 of 5 extra points.   

The Trojan defense kept St Francis in check most of the night. Saquan Dowery — the Mariners' leading running back — appeared to aggravate a sore ankle on their first play and didn’t return. Speed to the ball and team tackling worked wonders for West, lead by the play of seniors Brion Felix, Laquan Connor, juniors Andre Santiago, Jon Doolen, Devine Burt and sophomores Tim Mueller and Connor Young.

The Trojan varsity season ended with a record of 2-6 in the Woodland Conference and 2-7 overall.