Grace football battles to the end but loses to Morse in 6-A regional final

MOORPARK — Grace School’s football team lost to Morse of San Diego 57-40 in the CIF Southern California Regional Division 6-A championship game on Saturday night.

Morse (10-4) will take on Winters next week in the 6-A state championship game.

Grace did not have many answers for Morse running back Superior Garror, who ran the ball 28 times for 364 yards with four touchdowns. His longest run of the night was a 79-yard touchdown run on Morse’s opening drive of the contest.

“We knew he (Garror) was gonna be a good runner, we saw him on film and he stands out,” Grace coach Tom Coate said. “He’s a bell-cow and I didn’t put my defense in a good enough position to stop him.”

Despite the loss, this season will be remembered fondly by the Grace School community. Four years after shutting down the football program before restarting it, Grace was able to win the CIF-SS Division 12 championship last week.

“We had nine first-time starters on offense and eight first-time starters on defense and here we were, a game away from state,” Coate said. “This was an amazing season and God has blessed us with this season.”

Morse jumped out to a 27-12 lead at halftime, thanks in large part to Garror and De’Vell Green. Green had two touchdowns and an interception in the half, including a touchdown catch in the final moments of the half to give Morse a 27-12 lead.

Green’s other score came on a 77-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the first half.

Grace was able to cut the Morse lead to seven or eight points multiple times in the second half, but was not able to come up with a crucial stop against Garror and the Morse offense.

Grace was trailing 41-34 at the beginning of the fourth after Dominic Sforza recovered a botched Morse punt in the end zone for a Grace touchdown.

Garror had his final two touchdowns of the game after the Sforza score to put the game away for Morse.

Landon Cooper finished the game with 12 catches for 178 yards and four total touchdowns for Grace. Cooper also had four touchdowns in the CIF-SS championship win last week against Santa Paula.

Grace quarterback Riley Williams was 22 of 41 for 359 yards passing with three touchdowns and two interceptions. Riley’s brother, Grace running back Jake Williams, finished the game with 19 carries for 73 yards and three catches for 52 yards and a touchdown.

Morse quarterback Ethan Esmailian was 7 of 15 for 75 yards with two touchdowns passes and he also ran for a 68-yard touchdown.

Jaadin Weyandt had three catches for 42 yards and a sack on defense for Grace.

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