He聮s 58 yards away from the magical 1,000 for the season, but Greg Morris has bigger fish to fry come this afternoon.
Today is all about team and trying to remain in a top-two placing to make home-field advantage in the sa国际传媒 Football Conference playoffs a reality.
Morris and his 6-1 Westshore Rebels teammates will face a stiff test when the 5-1-1 Langley Rams pay a visit to Westhills Stadium (formerly Bear Mountain Stadium), with kickoff set for 4 p.m.
The Rebels are hoping to win their seventh straight game to keep the Rams behind them in the standings and stay within striking range of the Vancouver Island Raiders, the only team to beat Westshore so far this season.
聯We聮re on a nice little run and hoping to keep this going on a fast pace,聰 said Morris, who leads the league in touchdowns with 12 but even more impressively leads the BCFC with 942 yards rushing on 98 carries for a 9.6-yard average. That total is 349 yards more than Langley聮s Daniel Xavier.
But this is more than just about Morris and reaching 1,000 yards for the second straight year.
聯This is where we wanted to be six weeks ago, and here we are,聰 Rebels head coach John Cardilicchia said. 聯You can聮t ask for more than this, to play this team at home at this point of the season with the records being the way they are. It聮s a moment of truth.聰
Strong words from a man who is often emotionally filled with them.
聯I love where we聮re at right now, minus the injuries,聰 Cardilicchia said. 聯It聮s a real good character group, guys who really want this thing.
聯But we want a lot more than this. We聮re looking for a first-place battle with Nanaimo at the end of the season, and in order to get to that, we have to take care of business here. This has huge implications for that. This is our biggest test of the year and one of our biggest tests the last three years.聰
To manage a win, the Rebels will have to focus on a few key areas.
聯We have to shut their run game down, run the football, control the clock and keep the ball away from [ace kick-returner] Nick Downey and big plays,聰 Cardilicchia said. 聯We have to play 60 minutes of good, fundamental football and don聮t hurt ourselves and take advantage of things we聮ve seen that we think we can expose them on.聰
One of them is obviously the success that Morris can achieve.
Only twice this season has he been kept below the 100-yard mark (against he Raiders and Okanagan Sun). The Raiders are also the only team that have kept him out of the end zone.
聯He聮s a heck of a back 聴 never goes down easy,聰 Cardilicchia said. 聯He gets a lot of extra, scrappy yards after contact, and when the hole is there for him, he hits it at Mach speed. You have to take him down; he isn聮t taking himself down.聰
The Ontario native has his eyes set on that 1,000-yard plateau, but more so on a win.
聯It聮s a big game,聰 Morris said. 聯I聮m almost there [at 1,000], but I聮m just waiting for my offensive line to do the work and run in those gaps. I can聮t get it done without them.
聯I聮m just hoping we execute and move them the way we want to get them moving.聰
Not to mention keeping moving up the standings.
REBEL YELL: The Rebels have set a $2 student ticket price with all those proceeds going to Angels for Hannah and her battle with cancer (angelsforhannah.com).
