The Oak Park-River Forest football team sure knew how to please a homecoming crowd.
The Huskies gave their fans lots to celebrate by dominating Morton 46-0 in a West Suburban Conference crossover match-up on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Oak Park.
Junior quarterback John Phelan ran for three touchdowns and passed for another one.
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"Our line was blowing people off the ball all day," said Phelan, who carried the ball 14 times for 148 yards and completed six of nine passes for 132 yards. "Tony (Stapleton) and Jakari (Cammon) were both just running great. Everything was clicking. We were executing on all fronts."
The Huskies (2-5) gained 315 yards in building a 27-0 halftime lead. They finished with a season-high 503 yards.
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"That was probably our best offensive production since I've been here," OP-RF coach Jim Nudera said.
Stapleton ran for 145 yards, including a touchdown, on 22 attempts. Cammon added 67 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries.
OP-RF scored touchdowns on three of its first four possessions. The Huskies started the game by driving 63 yards on 11 plays, scoring on Stapleton's 6-yard run into the end zone at 7:59 of the first quarter.
The home team took a 14-0 lead on the first play of the second quarter when Cammon ran around the left end for a 24-yard touchdown.
The biggest play of the game came less than a minute later. Ed Guen-Murray scooped up a Morton fumble near its goal line and continued into the end zone for a touchdown, giving the Huskies a 20-0 advantage.
"That was a huge play," Nudera said. "We kind of broke their back a little bit."
While OP-RF's defense was busy shutting down Morton, its offense continued moving the ball. The Huskies put together a 10-play, 65-yard drive, scoring on Phelan's 1-yard sneak to stretch their cushion to 27-0 with 5:06 remaining in the first half.
The good times continued for the home team in the second half where it produced touchdowns on all three of its possessions. In the third quarter, Phelan scored on a 7-yard keeper with a dive into the right corner of the end zone, then connected with Francis Bourke for a 47-yard touchdown pass. Phelan completed the scoring with a 1-yard TD run on a rollout with 3:59 left in the game.
Morton (3-4) threatened to score in the final minute. The Mustangs had a first-and-goal situation at the 3, but fumbled and OP-RF's Brennan Van Spankeren recovered the ball to preserve the shutout.
The Huskies saw some familiar faces, including Morton head coach Bob Organ, on the opposing sideline.
"It definitely was more than just another game because these are the guys who coached us last year," Phelan said. "We were close."
"It's funny because they run a lot of plays that we do," Nudera said. "It was a little weird. A lot of kids know coach (Organ) and they respect coach Organ and Ed O'Bradovich and Josh McMahon and Randy Borgardt, Max Sakellaris. Those are our guys and now they've ventured into a new situation. They're going to work hard over there and see if they can get things turned around."
