Tabor football team knocks off KWU
n Keenan Morris hits a 45-yard field goal to sink Kansas Wesleyan, 30-28
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
Bluejay kicker Keenan Morris is listed on the roster at 5-foot-8.
On Saturday night in the highly anticipated showdown in Salina between the 20th ranked Bluejays and 16th ranked Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes, Morris loomed even larger than the biblical giant Goliath.
With 1:36 left in the game, it was Morris who calmly connected on a career-long 45-yard field goal to help lift the Bluejays to a dramatic 30-28 come-from-behind win over the Coyotes.
"When I was going out there, I was just thinking do the fundamentals and keep my head down," Morris said. "And try not to focus on the situation I was in and the pressure.
"I felt good and it was a big step for our team and for what we are trying to do this year."
The win gives Tabor their fourth win of the year and a 3-0 record in the KCAC, its highest ranking ever, 17th in the latest NAIA poll.
"It was good to see Keenan get his chance at something like that," Bluejay coach Tim McCarty said. "He's been struggling somewhat lately but we knew that the kick was in his range and he could make it."
KWU racked up 322 yards total offense with Tabor gaining 319 despite the Coyotes owning the ball nearly 17 minutes longer.
The KCAC's two best defenses also took center stage with Tabor ranking first in KCAC against the run and the Coyotes first against the pass.
Oddly enough, it was the Bluejays who had the better pass defense and the Coyotes who had a stronger defense against the run.
Midway through the first quarter, Tabor got out to a 13-0 after quarterback Ricky Ishida threw a pair of touchdown strikes, a 19-yarder to Dewayne Cleaves before hitting Tyson Ratzlaff for a 43-yard bomb.
Making only his second start in Dave Hernandez's absence, Ishida completed the night 14 for 36, throwing for a season-high 261 yards.
A game-high 198 yards went to Ratzlaff, who snagged seven catches for a pair of TDs.
"We showed a lot of heart," Ratzlaff said of the win. "I didn't know how we would react because we haven't been down yet. We showed a lot of heart and got the win, but we've still got a lot to work on."
KWU didn't stay down long, answering on its next possession.
Setting a school record for touchdowns against the Bluejays, Steve Willis' 28-yard catch from quarterback Ryan Canfield cut Tabor's lead to seven with 2:08 left in the first quarter.
The Coyotes took their first lead with 9:38 left in the first half on punishing back Oscar Nero's plunge into the endzone from three-yards out.
Nero plowed through on the two-point conversion and the Coyotes led 14-13.
Willis had one more touchdown up his sleeve, and with 28 seconds left in the half, Canfield found Willis for a 12-yard completion, pushing the Coyote lead to 20-13. Salvadore Arceo's PAT made it a 21-13 game at halftime, and for the first time this season,
"We didn't feel too bad," Bluejay linebacker Jake Schenk said of the defense feeling fatigued. "Coach (McCarty) just told us we had to fight through adversity this was the first time this season we've had to fight through it. He told us to just keep on going."
Schenk finished with a game-high 14 tackles en route to earning KCAC defensive Player-Of-the-Week honors.
Running rampant on the Bluejays the first half for 216 yards, KWU's hands were tied the second half with Nero being the Coyotes' only weapon.
Nero carried the ball 35 times for 151 yards.
The Bluejays were a recharged team the second half, and 19 seconds in, Tabor was within two after Ishida aired out a pass for Ratzlaff on a 58-yard completion, the only points scored by either team in the third quarter.
Looking to tie the game, Ishida's pass intended for Tyler Marsh was incomplete.
Tabor regained the lead with 11:52 left in the game. On a second-and-eight at the Coyote 11, Ishida hooked up with a wide-open Andy Strecker to cap off the Bluejays' longest drive of the game, 66 yards.
Cameron Conant zipped around the left end and into the end zone to make it a 27-21 game.
The Bluejay defense, aided by Brian Kimsey's punting, held the Coyotes to a modest 40 yards in the fourth quarter and 106 for the half.
That still wasn't enough to keep KWU from making another surge.
With the Bluejays backed up deep at their own 15, Ishida fired a pass right to Coyote secondary Lonnell Walker, who took it in unscathed 25 yards to put KWU ahead once again, 28-27.
After three incomplete passes, Kimsey pinned the Coyotes deep at their 1-yard line.
Tabor gave up nine yards, forcing KWU to punt on fourth-and-short.
Nero's punt of 27 yards set the Bluejays up with the field position they needed to win the game.
Tabor drove nine yards in four plays, moving the ball to the 28.
Several of the Bluejays on the sidelines couldn't bare to watch as Morris calmly nailed the Coyotes' coffin shut with the game winning field goal.
Wesleyan still had 1:36 left to work with.
But Eli Kennedy and Chad Duerksen drilled Canfield on third-and-six, dropping him for a six-yard loss.
On a fourth-and-12 from their own 30, KWU's bid at winning fell incomplete to Willis, allowing the Bluejays to run out the clock and douse McCarty with the water bucket.
"It was a good win for us, I feel good about it," McCarty said. "It's good for us to win a close game like that and that will help us."
"We really appreciated our crowd, how many showed up and how loud they were. That means a lot to the players."
The Bluejays travel Saturday to Lindsborg to face the struggling Bethany Swedes with game time scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
