The Morris football team has quite a rivalry with Peoria High School over the last decade or so. Morris and the Lions have met four times since 2013, three in the playoffs, before Saturday’s nonconference matchup. All four of the previous matchups have been both high-scoring and close. Unfortunately for Morris, all four of them ended with Peoria as the winner.

That changed Saturday.

It was still a back-and-forth affair with offenses taking center stage. But, this time, it was the Morris defense that came up big when it needed to and set the stage for a thrilling final drive. Morris quarterback Brady Varner fired a 12-yard laser to tight end Logan Sparrow with 29 seconds left to break a 28-28 tie. Grant Sparrow, Logan’s younger brother, kicked the extra point, for a 35-28 win.

With Peoria’s high-powered offense, nothing was certain. But defensive lineman Tomatoa Le’au made his second big defensive play in a matter of minutes with a sack of Peoria quarterback Breon Green. Earlier, he had stuffed Green a two-point conversion run after the Lions scored with 1:55 left to tie it at 28.

“On the two-point conversion, I wasn’t even supposed to go after the quarterback,” Le’au said. “All week, Coach [Ryan] Clauson, our defensive coordinator, was telling me to go after the running back. I did that most of the night, but on that conversion, I saw the quarterback still had the ball so I went after him.

“It was great to get in there and get a sack on their last drive, too. This is a big win for us. We kept fighting and got it done.”

Varner did not have his best night for Morris (3-0), but he made two big throws in the fourth quarter. He launched a 30-yard TD pass to RJ Kennedy on 3rd and 15 with 6:45 left and Caedan Curran’s two-point conversion run put Morris ahead 28-22. Curran finished with 110 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries.

On Morris’ final drive, they used Curran to move the ball to the Peoria 12. From there, Varner drilled a pass to Sparrow between two Peoria defenders. Sparrow juggled the ball once, then grabbed it as he went into the end zone.

“I honestly don’t know how I caught that ball,” Sparrow said. “I blinked and the ball hit my hands, then I blinked again and it bounced out. When I opened my eyes, I grabbed it. Brady made a perfect throw.

“I trust Brady. He’s my quarterback. I’ll always trust him.”

After allowing more than 50 points a game in the four previous meetings with the Lions, it was a defensive effort for the ages for Morris. One of the Lions’ touchdowns came on a 92-yard interception return by Damarion Zapata, and another came when they took over inside the Morris 20 after recovering a bad snap.

Morris bent but didn’t break. Peoria ran for more than 300 yards, but only scored three offensive touchdowns. Morris got interceptions from Kazden Klinker and Keegan Kjellesvik and a fumble recovery by Klinker.

“This is a huge win for our program,” Morris coach Alan Thorson said. “Holding them to 28 points isn’t easy, and one of those touchdowns was on an interception return and one was when we gave their offense a short field. We knew we could stop them.

“Brady Varner is a gamer. He threw that interception in the first half, but he owned it and he was the most positive guy at halftime. When it came down to the end and we needed plays, he made them.”