Saturday afternoon’s game couldn’t have started out better for Geneseo on in the Class 4A quarterfinals against Morris.

The Maple Leafs received the opening kickoff and, on their second play from scrimmage, quarterback Jackson McAvoy broke free for a 76-yard touchdown run.

Morris, though, righted the ship on the defensive side and used a steady diet of running back Caeden Curran (39 carries, 226 yards, two TDs) to come away with a 28-26 win to advance to the semifinals. Morris will play at Montini on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Montini upended Coal City 35-0 to advance.

It was the Morris defense that got things headed in that direction. Morris drove to the Geneseo 4-yard line before a halfback option pass was intercepted in the end zone. Two plays later, McAvoy attempted to pitch the ball to a teammate, but it slipped out of his hand and landed at the feet of Morris linebacker Owen Olson. Olson scooped it up and raced 22 yards for a touchdown.

The first of Grant Sparrow’s four extra-point kicks was good, and Morris took a 7-6 lead.

“I saw the ball on the ground and picked it up,” Olson said. “When I looked up, I saw nothing but green space ahead of me, so I just ran as fast as I could.

“A triple-option team like Geneseo is hard to prepare for, because you never know who is going to get the ball. We faced some similar teams during the year like Wilmington, Rochelle, Sycamore and Ottawa that ran pretty close to the same thing, so that helped us prepare. After we gave up that big run early, we knew we just had to put that behind us and go out and keep playing.”

After the Morris defense forced a Geneseo punt, the offense drive 88 yards on 12 plays, with Curran scoring from 2 yards out. Quarterback Brady Varner hit RJ Kennedy for gains of 11 and 12 yards during the drive, and also added 13 yards on a run as Morris took a 14-6 lead.

Morris (11-1) stopped Geneseo (9-3) on downs and took over at its own 37. Three runs gained 20 yards, but Geneseo’s Quinn VanHyfte intercepted a pass and returned it 53 yards for a touchdown. The conversion run failed, and Morris held a 14-12 lead, which it took into halftime.

“If you’re going to beat a team like Morris, you have to have things happen like they did in the first half,” Geneseo coach Matt Furlong said. “We got the long touchdown run right away, then a pick-six.

“There is no quit in our kids. Even when they got behind, they kept battling back, and they have done that all year. We saw improvement week in and week out, and this was one of those games where it just felt like we ran out of time.”

Morris received the second-half kickoff. Facing a third-and-19, Varner fit a pass into a tight window to Logan Conroy for a 30-yard gain. The drive stalled, however, and Morris’ Logan Sparrow punted to the Geneseo 1. The Morris defense forced a three-and-out and took over at the Geneseo 38 after a 22-yard punt return by Conroy.

Varner ran for a gain of 3 yards on first down before Curran ripped off a 21-yard gallop and scored from 9 yards out on the next play for a 21-12 lead.

“I had 39 carries?” Curran said after he was informed of his workload. “I’ll be feeling that in the morning. But when they call my number, I am ready to go.

“We knew we had to set the tone with our running game, and we did that. We were really wearing them down, and that’s a big part of our game. Just let that big offensive line wear on people.

“The defense swung the momentum big-time for us. That gives us a lot of confidence as an offense, because we know the defense is going to hold them and get us the ball back.

“We’re at the same spot in the playoffs as we were last year, and we want to go further this year.”

Geneseo took the ensuing kickoff and drove 70 yards on 17 plays, with freshman fullback Ben Simoski (16 carries, 69 yards, TD) scoring from 4 yards out. Carson Peters’ kick pulled the Leafs to within 21-19 with 8:15 to play.

Morris used 10 plays to go 61 yards on its next drive, with Mick Smith scoring from a yard out to put the visitors ahead 28-19 with 4:43 left. McAvoy scored from a yard out for Geneseo with 1:23 left, but Morris recovered the ensuing onside kick and ran out the clock.

“We don’t make it easy,” Morris coach Alan Thorson said. “It has kind of been this team’s M.O. this year. We don’t always start out well, but the kids continue to show heart and fight. They have all the confidence in the world that they are going to get it done. ...

“We were in a tough environment today. Geneseo is a great program, they had a big crowd, and they hit us with a big play early. At times it wasn’t pretty or clean, but I just love the heart that this team has.”