MCHS to host Berwick in week 1 contest

Morgan City and Berwick High schools will begin their regular seasons Friday when they meet each other on the gridiron at Tiger Stadium in Morgan City.
Both teams are coming off jamboree losses at the Taco Bell Morgan City High School Jamboree last week as Morgan City fell to Patterson 35-7, and Berwick lost to White Castle 19-12.
In Morgan City’s contest, its touchdown came via a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Devonta Grogan.
Meanwhile, Berwick’s touchdowns came via a 70-yard touchdown completion from quarterback Reed Gonzales to Keyon Singleton on a screen pass and a 67-yard touchdown pass from Gonzales to Dylan Cothron.
Gonzales finished the game with 221 yards passing, completing 7 of 18 attempts. He had two touchdowns and one interception.
“For the jamboree, I thought at times we played OK,” Berwick Coach Mike Walker said. “I thought our big thing, though, we had a big turnover on our possession when we needed to score. We had a possession where we had the ball like 10 or 12 plays and couldn’t punch it in. We scored on two big plays, and we weren’t able to necessarily sustain drives to get points, and defensively, we just gave up too many big plays.”
Heading into week 1, Walker said his team will have a shot to win if they can score on offensive possessions and keep Morgan City’s big plays to a minimum.
As for Morgan City, all eyes on Berwick’s defense will be on Morgan City standout Devonta Grogan.
“He’s by far their best player,” Walker said. “He’s going to play offense, defense and special teams, so we’re going to have to do a good job of finding where he’s at and not let him beat us, force them to have somebody else step up to beat us. We’re going to do some things to try and limit his production.”
If the Tigers can limit Grogan’s big plays, Walker said his team has a chance to win.
Meanwhile, Morgan City High School Coach Chris Stroud said that Berwick is a well-coached squad.
“We knew they had lost their starting quarterback and tailback (from a year ago), but they moved a good athlete (Keyon Singleton) to running back,” Stroud said. “They’re going to do some things with him, try to get the ball in his hands. They play very good defense. They fly around. They look like bumble bees flying everywhere to the football.”
Stroud said the Tigers, who have a small offensive line, have had some problems moving the pigskin up the field.
“If our O-line continues to improve and get better, we’ll have a chance, but we got to block better,” he said.
Additional reporting by The Daily Review’s Corwin Murray.