Morton, Furr lift Mount Tabor over East

By: By Dan Kibler | SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL
Published: September 04, 2010

Brad Morton and Lawson Furr would have made an awesome contribution to anybody's fantasy-football team last night.

In fact, they were an awesome combination for Mount Tabor, connecting for three touchdowns as the Spartans' explosive offense hit on all cylinders in a 52-21 win over visiting East Forsyth.

Morton completed 16 of 24 passes for 340 yards and four touchdowns, including touchdown passes of 37, 58 and 63 yards to Furr, who finished with seven catches for 224 yards, kicked six extra points and added a 49-yard field goal for good measure.

Coach Laymarr Marshall said he wanted to try and get his team's passing attack out of the box early, and with East Forsyth (2-1) jamming the line of scrimmage and playing almost entirely man coverage in the secondary, the likelihood of a big night for Morton was in place.

"We had to get our passing game on track," Marshall said. "Coming into the season, we thought we might be more of a throwing team, but we ran the ball well the first couple of games. We felt like we had to get Brad on track.

"They crowd the line and play a lot of man-to-man. We saw some things, and we got rolling."

Mount Tabor (2-1) scored on three of its first four possessions to take a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter. Blyre Stokes went 68 yards for a touchdown on the third play from scrimmage, Morton hit Hunter Somerville with a 38-yard touchdown on the third play of Mount Tabor's second possession, and early in the second quarter, and after a penalty nullified a 30-yard touchdown run by Morton, Stokes scored from 14 yards out.

Furr's 37-yard touchdown catch put the Spartans up 28-7, but quarterback Erick Smith led East on a 66-yard drive, scoring on a 3-yard run with five seconds left in the half.

The Eagles took the second-half kickoff and drove 80 yards, with Smith hitting Ray McCloud with an 18-yard touchdown pass to make the score 28-21, but that just signaled Morton and Furr to take over.

On the Spartans' next possession, they connected on a 58-yard fly pattern for a touchdown, and when the Eagles went three-and-out, they connected on a 63-yard post pattern on first down to make it 42-21.

Furr kicked a 49-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter, and Stokes capped the scoring with his third touchdown run, from 10 yards out, with 9:32 to play. He finished with 108 yards rushing on 11 carries.

"They play at lot of man-to-man, and we tried to take advantage of it," said Morton. "Two of those were the same pattern; the third was a post.

"The three (touchdown) catches were more fun than the long field goal," said Furr.

East Forsyth 0 14 7 0 -- 21
Mount Tabor 14 14 14 10 -- 52

MT: Stokes 68 run (Furr kick)

MT: Somerville 38 pass from Morton (Furr kick)

MT: Stokes 14 run (Furr kick)

EF: McCloud 39 pass from Smith (Hollandsworth kick)

MT: Furr 37 pass from Morton (Furr kick)

EF: Smith 3 run (Hollandsworth kick)

EF: McCloud 18 pass from Smith (Hollandsworth kick)

MT: Furr 38 pass from Morton (Furr kick)

MT: Furr 63 pass from Morton (Furr kick)