El Cajon Ford East County Game of the Week Preview: Christian Patriots 28, Morse Tigers 20

The Christian Patriots (6-1) leaned on Nashom Carter and the running game to hold off the Morse Tigers (3-4) in the El Cajon Ford East County Game of the Week.

On the first possession of the game, Christian quarterback Brad Jeremiah was intercepted by the Tigers’ Martell Irby. The ensuing drive ended with Irby running a direct snap in for a 19-yard touchdown and an 8-0 Morse lead.

Jeremiah marched the Patriots back the other way, throwing a 13-yarder to Alonzo Richardson that took them to the 2-yard line, then sneaking in for a score.

Christian’s Nashom Carter added an exclamation point in the second quarter, with the ball at the Morse 16. As he tried to jump over a defender, he launched off of them even higher into the air — then came down and kept running to the 5-yard line. Two plays later, he punched in a 2-yarder that gave the Patriots a 14-8 lead at the break.

In the third, Jeremiah dumped off a backfield pass to Alex Gonzalez, who took it 22 yards for a score and a 21-8 advantage. Later in the quarter, Jeremiah was hit by the Tigers’ Tim Patrick, and Devon Brown returned the fumble 55 yards to make it a one-score game. But a 16-yard run from Carter pushed the lead back to 28-14 entering the final frame.

Anthony Gonzalez found Irby for a 33-yard score with a minute left, but the Patriots recovered the onside kick to preserve the 28-20 win.

PREVIEW: This edition of the El Cajon Ford East County Game of the Week is a study in contrasts, as the galloping ground game of the Morse Tigers (3-3) matches up against the all-out air assault of the Christian Patriots (5-1).

Brad carries on the Jeremiah family tradition, as the fourth with that last name to line up under center for Christian. In their Eastern League opener against Mission Bay, he tied a section record with 8 touchdown passes. On the season, the senior has completed 71% of his throws for 2133 yards (third in the state) and 30 scores (second in the state).

It takes a lot of receivers to catch all those passes. Senior Jesse Matthews leads the team with 36 receptions and 570 yards, and also has 8 touchdowns. Junior Alexander Gonzalez has 433 yards and a team-high 11 scores, while sophomore Alonzo Richardson has chipped in 509 yards and 7 trips to the endzone.

In Morse’s Week 5 win over Brawley, they ran for over 400 yards — more than the Patriots have picked up all year. Martell Irby had 248 of those yards himself, and has already gone over 1000 for the season. Tim Patrick and A.J. Vilaysane are also key threats out of the Tiger backfield.

Tune in for live pregame coverage on KUSI News between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. During the game, follow all the action on Twitter and Instagram, at @kusippr and @redjacketarmy. And of course, you can see all the highlights on the Prep Pigskin Report at 10:30 p.m., only on KUSI.