The 5-foot-10, 175-pound is getting another chance this season, playing a vital role for a new school, Cardinal O’Hara.
Friday night marked a couple of milestone moments for Donzo, who has only been playing football for three years. Against his old school West Catholic and the same pals he used to hear on Monday mornings, Donzo exploded for career-bests three touchdowns and 118 yards rushing on 11 carries to lead the undefeated Lions to a 38-0 victory over previously undefeated West Catholic.
The Lions pitched their third shutout of the season in four games, and their first team defense has not been scored on yet. O’Hara has outscored its four opponents 173-7, the lone score coming against the Lions’ second team defense in a 34-7 victory over Conwell-Egan.
What gets lost here is this is an O’Hara team that reached the PIAA Class 4A state semifinals last season, failing to reach the finals on a highly controversial call against Southern Lehigh, the eventual Class 4A state champions.
Now with the bulk of its defense returning and powered on offense with a speed- by-committee approach with backs like Donzo, sophomore Charles Goldsborough, and juniors Emilio Martinez and Simon Horta, the Lions are proving to be once again formidable contenders for the PIAA Class 4A state championship.
On Friday night, it was Donzo’s turn to carry the freight against his former high school.
“It was all love after the game, I love my guys, on the field it is different, off the field, it is all love,” said Donzo, whose older brother Abu went to O’Hara. “I’m close to Emilio and he talked me into going here. I came to O’Hara for academics and I wanted to see what it was like being part of a new culture. I started playing football in eighth grade. I’ve only been playing (organized) football for two years before coming here.
“I remember sitting in the classroom last year hearing the guys talk about their games, thinking I could have been out there with them. I had to work basically and couldn’t make practice. There is no animosity.
“This is a new team and a new beginning.”
What also was lost in a brilliant display of stubborn defense and Donzo’s career-best accomplishments was an O’Hara football first: In the decades of the storied program, no O’Hara team ever had two pick-sixes in one quarter until Friday night.
Martinez’s 69-yard interception touchdown return launched the Lions with the first score of the game early in the second quarter, followed by Horta’s 50-yard interception return five minutes later for a 19-0 O’Hara lead.
Back in the 2005 Catholic League Red Division semifinals against La Salle, O’Hara linebacker Scott Taylor returned two interceptions for touchdowns, but they came in the third and fourth quarters, respectively, of a 35-14 O’Hara victory.
“That’s something I had no idea (about making history),” said Martinez, who started on last year’s state semifinal team. “On my pick, I read the play and took off. I’ve been looking forward to this season. I walked off that field (after last year’s semifinal) in tears, because I thought I was the reason why we lost. I’m the one who let up that one big catch at the end of the game.
“After that, I’ve been in revenge mode ever since. Our ego is right where it needs to be. We know what needs to be accomplished. We’re posting doughnuts.”
Martinez was influential in getting Donzo to play again and come to O’Hara. None of Donzo’s success is a surprise to him
“He just needed that boost,” Martinez said.
For the game, O’Hara held West Catholic to 38 yards rushing, 126 yards of total offense and one first down in the second half. The Burrs did not help themselves, either. They were rolling early, entering O’Hara territory on the first drive of the game, before getting hit with three successive penalties, one a holding call that negated a 33-yard reception on a third-and-17 play.
The Burrs never got beyond the O’Hara 43-yard line the remainder of the game.
“O’Hara is a good team and they had the better day,” West Catholic coach Don said Richardson, who directed West Catholic to its first 3-0 start since 2013. “We have a young team and this is their first time playing varsity football, and they are doing this for the first time. But you can’t shoot yourself in the foot. O’Hara came with the energy and we didn’t match it or exceed it.
“We need to execute and grow together. We can’t let this game derail us. It hurts, but we’ll have to learn from this.”
Lions’ coach Michael Ewing has resurrected a traditionally rich program that was on the scrapheap for years before his arrival. He’s attracted players like Martinez and Donzo to Springfield. He got the Lions off to undefeated 4-0 starts the last two years.
“We acknowledge last year with a lot of starters back on defense, but this is a new team that still has a lot work ahead of us,” Ewing said. “We spoke this week about ego going into this game. Defensively, we are where we want to be, we just need to build some consistency on offense.
“We made mistakes tonight that are correctable. We’ll fix it in practice. We challenge these guys not to walk around as if we’ve won something. We told them this week to watch their egos, and decided to their egos go tonight. They flipped the switch. I’m really proud of them.”
Scoring Summary
West Catholic (3-1) 0 0 0 0-0
Cardinal O’Hara (4-0) 0 26 6 6-38
2nd Quarter
CO – Emilio Martinez 69 INT return (run failed), 11:03
CO – Morris Donzo 50 run (Devon Creighton kick), 7:57
CO – Simon Horta 50 INT return (kick failed), 6:50
CO – Charles Goldsborough 1 run (Creighton kick), :59
3rd Quarter
CO – Donzo 1 run (kick failed), 9:45
4th Quarter
CO – Donzo 13 run (kick failed), 8:54
Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who has been covering high school football since 1992 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow EasternPAFootball.com on Twitter @EPAFootball.