Sultans return to finish off Morse

SULTANS TURN THE TABLES, ROLL PAST MORSE IN OPENER

By Ramon Scott
EastCountySports.com

SAN DIEGO — Ten months after Santana’s season ended at Morse in a 38-0 playoff loss, the Sultans returned to the same field Friday night and made the rematch look nothing like the first meeting.

This time, Santana was the dominant team.

The Sultans scored the first 30 points, produced touchdowns through the air and on the ground, and received a disruptive defensive performance from junior Tatum Morehouse in a convincing 37-12 nonleague victory over Morse.

Last season, second-seeded Morse eliminated Santana in the second round of the CIF San Diego Section Division V playoffs. Friday, the Sultans turned the tables emphatically, taking a 30-6 halftime lead and never allowing the Tigers to seriously threaten.

Senior quarterback Ethan Miller accounted for four touchdowns, throwing three and running for another. Miller completed 15 of 29 passes for 205 yards and three touchdowns, while Ethan Smith completed his only pass for 16 yards as Santana finished with 221 passing yards.

Denton Goar caught three passes for 86 yards and a touchdown, while Kolten “Koko” Thornton had four receptions for 42 yards and a score. Sophomore Connor Galarneau added three catches for 37 yards, including perhaps the catch of the night.

And while Santana’s offense was producing big plays, Morehouse was creating problems everywhere for the Tigers. He finished with 15 tackles and two sacks to lead a defense that held Morse to just 154 yards of total offense.

The Sultans couldn’t have scripted a much better reversal of their last trip to Morse.

Safety gets Santana started

Santana’s first points didn’t come from its offense.

A punt snap sailed over the Morse punter’s head and into the end zone. Santana’s coverage unit swarmed him before he could escape, producing a safety and an immediate 2-0 lead.

Miller and the offense took over from there.

With approximately three minutes remaining in the first quarter, Miller connected with senior Brenden Varner for a 16-yard touchdown. The extra point made it 9-0.

Santana had an opportunity to add to the lead with a field goal in the second quarter, but Morse blocked the attempt.

It didn’t matter for long.

Koko sells the block — then catches the touchdown

Thornton’s 7-yard touchdown reception was one of Santana’s best-designed plays of the night and showed the versatility the senior gives the Sultans.

Thornton lined up in the backfield with Miller and initially appeared to be headed directly toward a Morse linebacker as a blocker. Instead, Thornton juked the defender, released into the left side and became Miller’s receiver.

Miller zipped him the ball and Thornton did the rest, crashing through defenders at the goal line for the touchdown.

The two-point conversion failed, but Santana had stretched its lead to 15-0.

Thornton contributed throughout the night as both a runner and receiver, finishing with 51 yards from scrimmage.

Miller powers his way in

Santana’s next touchdown came with the Sultans facing fourth-and-3 near the goal line.

From the left hash, Miller rolled toward an overloaded right side, kept the football and headed for the right numbers. Rather than looking for somewhere to slide through, the senior quarterback lowered himself into the traffic and powered across the goal line.

Santana then produced one of its better individual plays on the conversion.

Miller fired toward Ethan Smith on the right side and Smith reached out to make a one-handed catch for the two points.

Suddenly, it was 23-0.

Morse finally found an answer when junior Deandre Eleby broke loose for a 55-yard touchdown run. A penalty complicated the conversion attempt and the Tigers failed to add the extra points, leaving Santana ahead 23-6 with 2:42 remaining in the half.

Eleby was virtually the entire Morse offense. He eventually finished with 125 yards on 13 carries and both Tigers touchdowns.

Santana wasn’t satisfied taking a 17-point advantage into halftime.

Instead, the Sultans delivered one of the night’s biggest highlights.

Galarneau goes up and gets it

Miller sent a pass toward the left side of the end zone for Galarneau, who went up and hauled the ball into his hands near the back of the end zone.

The sophomore maintained possession as he tumbled to the ground for a spectacular 21-yard touchdown reception.

The extra point made it 30-6, and the Santana celebration was on as the teams headed to halftime.

It was a fitting conclusion to a first half in which Santana had thoroughly controlled a team that had shut out the Sultans in their previous meeting.

Goar gets lost — by the Morse defense

Santana wasn’t finished.

Early in the second half, Miller looked downfield and found Goar running through a completely confused Morse secondary.

Goar hauled in the pass before reaching the Tigers’ 30 and looked around to find essentially nobody there to challenge him. He raced untouched to the end zone for a 56-yard touchdown, extending Santana’s advantage to 37-6.

Goar finished with three receptions for 86 yards, meaning the long touchdown accounted for nearly two-thirds of his receiving yardage.

Morse added its final touchdown in the fourth quarter on another Eleby run, but by then Santana had long since decided the outcome.

Morehouse leads dominant defensive effort

While the touchdowns provided the highlights, Santana’s defensive performance may have been every bit as encouraging.

Morse quarterback Nikolaos Banks completed 10 of 16 passes but managed only 46 yards through the air. Santana repeatedly disrupted the Tigers behind the line of scrimmage, with Morehouse leading the way.

The junior’s 15 tackles and two sacks made him the centerpiece of a defense that allowed Morse only 154 total yards.

Outside of Eleby’s explosiveness — he accounted for 148 yards rushing and receiving — the Tigers found very little room to operate.

Banks finished with minus-24 rushing yards, another indication of how frequently Santana’s pressure pushed Morse backward.

That defense also set the tone immediately with the opening safety and never allowed Morse to get comfortable.

Miller distributes the football

Santana didn’t produce a big rushing total — only 44 yards as a team — but Miller repeatedly found answers through the air.

Goar led the receivers with 86 yards, Thornton contributed 42, Galarneau had 37, Julian Mayers caught four passes for 24 yards, Varner’s touchdown reception went for 16, and Smith added three receptions for 10 yards.

That distribution may be as significant as any individual number.

Three different Sultans caught touchdown passes, and all three scores came in different ways: Varner provided the early strike, Thornton scored through formation and deception, Galarneau won the football in the end zone, and Goar later broke the game open with Santana’s longest scoring play.

For a team that entered the season with Miller as an experienced senior quarterback but questions about how its offensive pieces would fit together, the opener supplied some immediate answers.

And it came against the opponent that had ended Santana’s previous season.

A year ago, the scoreboard at Morse read 38-0 Tigers.

Friday night, Santana walked off the same field a 37-12 winner.

That’s about as complete a turnaround as the Sultans could have asked for.

LOOKAHEAD: CRAWFORD COMES TO SANTEE

Santana (1-0) returns home next week to face Crawford, giving the Sultans a second consecutive matchup against a San Diego City Conference opponent.

Crawford will arrive looking for its first victory after another Grossmont Valley League team, Monte Vista, defeated the Colts 31-23 in Friday’s opener.

The final score doesn’t tell the entire story. Monte Vista led 31-0 before Crawford mounted a furious comeback.

Quarterback Giovanni Garcia completed 21 of 32 passes for 253 yards and a touchdown, while Damian Monroy caught seven passes for 130 yards and a score. Shamar Warrer recorded 10 tackles and also scored two rushing touchdowns.

That late Crawford surge should provide Santana with plenty to emphasize during the week. The Sultans’ pass defense was excellent against Morse, allowing only 46 yards, but next week’s challenge figures to be much different against Garcia and a Crawford offense that demonstrated it can move the football through the air.

SULTAN STANDOUTS

Ethan Miller, QB: 15-of-29 passing, 205 yards, three TD passes; one rushing TD.

Denton Goar, WR: Three receptions, 86 yards and a touchdown, highlighted by a 56-yard catch-and-run.

Kolten “Koko” Thornton, RB/WR: Four receptions for 42 yards and a touchdown while contributing from multiple alignments.

Connor Galarneau, WR: Three receptions for 37 yards, including an acrobatic 21-yard touchdown catch just before halftime.

Tatum Morehouse, defense: 15 tackles and two sacks as the Sultans limited Morse to 154 total yards.

Santana defense: 46 passing yards allowed and an opening-quarter safety that gave the Sultans a lead they never surrendered.

FINAL — Santana 37, Morse 12
Santana 9 21 7 0 — 37
Morse   0  6 0 6 — 12

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