With Morris, a 5-11, 190-pound senior halfback, rushing 15 times for 89 yards and an 8-yard touchdown, Dougherty bested Ss. Neumann-Goretti, 6-0, in a non-league opener played in sticky conditions at Maxwell Field.
"It took us long enough," Morris kidded. "It wasn't pretty, but that's football."
As the clock hit 0:00, second-year coach Jim Grugan disappeared under a waterfall and the players spared no energy while rejoicing. The cards had been stacked against Dougherty for 17 consecutive games (though the first loss in that skid, to Frankford, was overturned via forfeit), so experiencing the flip side of depression was quite exhilarating.
OK, maybe not depression. At least not for Morris.
"The seasons felt long. Just really drawn out," he said. "I was OK with it, though, because I love football. Win, lose or draw, I come to practice every day and work hard and do my best for the team.
"Today, we came in with a chip on our shoulder. We wanted it real bad. It didn't matter how bad Neumann wanted it. We wanted it 10 times more. In the second half, with the score still 0-0, we had to take it."
Amazingly, Dougherty's scoring drive, completed with 0:57 showing in the third quarter, covered 140 yards - 87 the first time, 53 the next.
Quarterback Trevor Pendleton first scored on an impressive 73-yard, mad-dash keeper along the left sideline, but a piece of yellow cloth (for blocking in the back) wrecked the fun.
"I saw that," said Morris, who lives near Walnut Lane and Musgrave Street in Germantown and envisions a career in marketing. "It seemed like the Neumann guy did it to our guy, really . . . Had to keep our focus. Take it down there again. Grind it out. We felt they were tired. We wanted to take advantage."
