It’s Friday the 13th in October and the game results were a dream and not a nightmare for the Effingham Hearts. Effingham prevailed with a 21-14 win over Mt. Zion to keep their playoff hopes alive.
More often than not, when these two teams get together you rest assure it will be an exciting game and this game sure had its moments.
The game started out with a couple of scores in the opening quarter and looked to be a potential points fest like last year.
Effingham would get on the board first with a 34 yard touchdown run by Weldon Dunston. On the ensuing possession, Mt. Zion would drive down the field and QB Makobi Adams would scramble into the end zone from 31 yards out to tie the game at 7. Then on the following possession, the Hearts went all the way down the field and Hunter Reed caught a pass and as he was reaching the football out to try and break the plane of the goal line, he lost the ball and the Braves would recover at the one yard line. But after a 33 yard catch from Brayden Trimble, nothing would come of that drive and ultimately the 7-7 tie would hold until halftime.
After the break Mt. Zion would punt it away and Effingham would cash in with a nice drive. QB Gaige Gillum ran it in from 11 yards out to put the Hearts in front 14-7. Mt. Zion would later capitalize on a short field due to a Hearts fumble. On the first play of the fourth quarter Adams would rush it in from the one yard line to tie the score at 14. Effingham would respond right back with a nine play, 74 yard drive and Dunston would score his second rushing TD of the night. That ultimately would be the go ahead score 21-14.
Mt. Zion would try and get things going to tie it up but Michael Love made three consecutive stops, including batting the ball down at the line of scrimmage on fourth down to force a turnover on downs. Mt. Zion would get the ball back for one final trick play. As a backwards pass to Trimble who threw down the field short of it’s intended target to preserve the much needed win for Effingham.
Effingham improves to 4-4 on the season and will go on the road to Centralia next week with a chance to get win number five and become playoff eligible.
Mt. Zion falls to 6-2 on the season and returns home for their finale against Breese Mater Dei who is also 6-2.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||
| MTZ | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 14 |
| EHS | 7 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 21 |
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter 4 Plays 58 yds Dunston 34 yd TD Run (Sefton PAT Good) 7-0
1st Quarter 6 Plays 45 yards Adams 31 yd TD Run (Shumaker PAT Good) 7-7
3rd Quarter 9 Plays 62 yards Gillum 11 yd TD Run (Sefton PAT Good) 14-7
4th Quarter 5 Plays 29 yards Adams 1 yd TD Run (Shumaker PAT Good) 14-14
4th Quarter 9 Plays 74 yards Dunston 10 yd TD Run (Sefton PAT Good) 21-14
Effingham Stats
Gillum 5/8 58 yds 16 carries 55 yds 1 TD
Dunston 28 carries 176 yds 2 TDs
Reed 3 receptions 37 yds
Webb 2 receptions 21 yds
Belcher 2 carries 13 yds
Mt. Zion Stats
Adams 8/18 102 7 carries 30 yds 2 TDs
Trimble 0/1 4 carries 0 yards 4 receptions 58 yds
Richardson 3 carries 5 yds
Bollhorst 8 carries 25 yds
McCatee 2 receptions 20 yds
Andserson 2 receptions 19 yds
Harvey 1 reception 25 yds
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