Tornadoes look to rebound Friday against Morton

The Philadelphia High School Tornadoes will be looking for their first win of the season Friday night when they visit the Morton Panthers in prep football action.

The Tornadoes will be trying to correct mistakes on offense and special teams this week following their 12-6 season opening loss to Forest last Friday night at Harpole Field. The Tornadoes had three unsuccessful punt attempts in the first half and numerous mishaps when snapping the ball to the quarterback.

The Bearcats took the ball on the Tornado 23-yard line following a blocked punt.  Forest would later score on a quarterback sneak. The extra point try failed and Forest led 6-0 with 8:26 left in the first quarter.

A second blocked punt put Forest on the Philadelphia 21-yard line. The Tornado defense stopped the Bearcats from scoring and turned the ball over on downs.

Late in the second quarter, Forest retuned the ball to the Philadelphia 28-yard line and scored on a TD pass with 23 seconds left in the half, The try for two failed and Forest led 12-0 at the half.

Philadelphia recovered a fumble late in the third quarter on the Forest 29-yard line. Two plays later, quarterback Dee Burnside scored on an 18-yard rush. The try for: two failed and the Tornadoes trailed 12-6 with 2:03 left in the third quarter. From that point, the defenses on both sides dug in and neither team would score again.

Jacammeron Bolar rushed for 71 yards on seven carries and caught two passes for 59 yards. Burnside rushed for 25 yards while completing four passes for 111 yards.

“Offensively, we made too many mistakes but that will be fixed this week,” Coach David Frey said. “We will be going under center from here on out. We are not going to lose again because of bad snaps.

“The defense played great. They were on the field the entire game.  We have to fix the offense. Morton lost their opener to Scott Central (34-18). They are very athletic and like to throw the ball a lot. Their quarterback can run and scramble when he gets in trouble. They have a really good receiver . But our defense is good enough to keep us in the game. If we can get our offense clicking, we are going to be really tough to beat.”