3A high school football playoffs: Emery at Morgan

Emery (5-4) at Morgan (7-3)

3A state tournament first round

Friday, 3 p.m.

Parry's Power Guide: Morgan by 18

All-time series: Morgan leads 4-1

Coach vs. Coach: Emery's Jim Jones and Morgan's Kovi Christiansen, first meeting

Last meeting: 3A first round, Oct. 29, 2006 — Morgan 45, Emery 7

For the most part, the 2009 regular season was a successful one for the Morgan Trojans. Despite losing most of the players that led the school to the 3A semifinals a season ago, Morgan still won a lot of games this fall and did a lot of good things.

The final day of the regular season, however, wasn't kind to the Trojans.

On the road to defending champ Juan Diego in a game that decided the Region 11 championship, Morgan was humbled from start to finish as the Soaring Eagle racked up a 34-0 victory.

The Trojans are looking forward to being able to leave that defeat behind and move on to other things.

Their chance to do just that will arrive on Friday at 3 p.m. when the school hosts Emery in the opening round of the 3A tournament.

Morgan's players and coaches can't wait for it to arrive.

"We are excited," said Morgan coach Kovi Christiansen. "There's a huge discrepancy between the top three teams in the (classification) and some of the other ones that made the playoffs. (But) we're gonna make a run at it as far as we can go and just see what the kids can do."

On offense, Morgan can hit you with a variety of running backs.

Balance has been a huge part of Morgan's offense this fall, as Jordan Wamsley (651 yards and eight TDs), Lawson Toomer (514 yards and seven TDs), Matt Largent (400 yards and two TDs) and Tad Sargent (301 yards and two TDs) have all rushed for at least 300 yards.

To be successful against Emery, Christiansen said those guys must protect the football.

"We'll have to hold on to the ball," he said. "In our losses, we've had a hard time controlling the ball and keeping the ball. We'll have to be cautious of that in holding on to it and running hard.