Morgan’s Logan Niceswanger (12) carries the ball during a high school football game against Warren Friday night in McConnelsville. Morgan won, 33-22. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

McCONNELSVILLE — Logan Niceswanger will remember this one for a long time.

Morgan’s senior quarterback has had big games on the gridiron before, but none matched the atmosphere of Friday night’s 33-22 victory over visiting Morgan.

In what was the first game on the Raiders’ brand new field, Niceswanger threw for 185 yards, rushed for 90 more and accounted for five touchdowns to help lift Morgan to a 2-0 start.

“It’s awesome,” Niceswanger said. “It’s a part of history. The first game on the Raider Stadium field. People will remember this. I’ll be going to my kids telling them in the future, ‘I was the quarterback that got to play the first game on the Raider Stadium field.’ It’s memorable. It’s awesome.”

The buzz for this game was palpable among the Morgan County community. About an hour prior to kickoff, the parking lots and stands were already close to full. Most of the Morgan fans in attendance were on their feet as fireworks soared over the new stadium following the conclusion of the game. Morgan head coach Chase Bowman normally doesn’t pay attention to that stuff, but he couldn’t help but take it all in Friday.

“It was pretty cool,” said Bowman, who led the Raiders to the playoffs last season. “I don’t usually take any time before games to look at the crowd because obviously I’ve got more important things to worry about, but I wanted to today because I knew the magnitude of this moment. First game in this stadium, and it was pretty cool. To see the stands packed and the standing-room-only out here — our community is awesome.”

Morgan, which will be back on its home turf next week against Philo, got the ball first and marched right down the field. Niceswanger completed back-to-back passes to Kole Searl to get the ball into Warren territory. A 13-yard run by William Dodd got the ball in the red zone, and two plays later Hayden Bankes took Niceswanger’s screen pass 11 yards for a touchdown. The extra-point was no good to make it 6-0.

Warren, which dropped to 1-1 and visits Fairfield Union next week, wasn’t fazed by Morgan’s hot start. Eric Carr had a nice kick return to set the Warriors up with good field position. Jacob Sealey threw a 17-yard pass to Tanner Pepper, and two plays later Sealey ran 34 yards to the house to five Warren a 7-6 lead.

That ended up being the Warriors’ only possession of the opening quarter as Morgan drained the final 6 minutes, 11 seconds off the clock. The Raiders chewed up 86 yards on 14 plays, the final one being an 11-yard TD pass from Niceswanger to Searl to make it 12-7.

Morgan halted Warren’s next offensive possession, and a 13-yard punt gave the Raiders’ the ball at the Warriors’ 39-yard line. Searl had an 11-yard catch, and a facemask tacked on 15 more yards. Two plays later, Niceswanger ran in from 11 yards out to give Morgan an 18-7 advantage.

Warren answered just before halftime when Pepper’s 35-yard catch and run put the ball at the 1, and Sealey ran it in from there to cut it 18-14 at the break.

The Warriors had the ball to start the second half, but Morgan forced a three-and-out. The Raiders then covered 66 yards in four plays, including a 27-yard catch by Searl and a 22-yard run by Dodd. Niceswanger capped the drive with a 5-yard touchdown run before hitting Searl on the two-point conversion to make the score 26-14.

“We kept our cool,” Bowman said. “First half, we felt like defensively we were in position a lot, but they did a god job of breaking our tackles and were able to score late in the first half. For us to not let that momentum continue into the second half was huge. We’ve talked a lot about the middle eight — the end of the first half and beginning of the second — they won the end of the first, but we talked about wanting to win the beginning of the second, and I felt like we did that.”

Each team found the end zone once more, Morgan on Bankes’ 32-yard reception, and Warren on Ayden Strahler’s 6-yard run with 9:12 left in the fourth. Warren had the ball with 7;16 to go and a chance to make it a one-score game, but the drive stalled when Morgan’s Haiden Pauley recorded an interception to secure the victory.

Niceswanger competed 11 of 17 passes and carried the ball 14 times for a game-high 90 yards.

“This is a great atmosphere, but we’ve got to be able to block it out and execute, and I think we did that,” Niceswanger said.

At this point, there isn’t much Morgan’s QB could do that would surprise his head coach.

“We know what we’re going to get from him,” Bowman said. “He’s a heck of a ballplayer. Heck of a leader. We know if he’s got the ball in his hands, something good is probably going to happen. We have a lot of trust in that kid at quarterback.”

Dodd finished with 84 yards on 10 carries while Searl led all receivers with 107 yards on seven grabs.

Sealey was 12 for 18 passing for 156 yards, and had a pick on defense. He also rushed 18 times for 83 yards and two TDs. Pepper caught five passes for 73 yards.

Jordan Holland can be reached at jholland@mariettatimes.com.