Effingham ran 84 offensive plays; Mt. Zion 43. And the Hearts controlled the ball for nearly 36 of the 48 total minutes. That means EHS was on offense 75 percent of the game.

Most times stats like that result in a victory – possibly even a blowout. But not Friday night.

When the Braves did have the ball, their passing game proved lethal.

Adams, just a junior, entered the game completing 61 percent of his passes and throwing for 227 yards per game. Friday night, he was even better, connecting on 21-of-33 attempts – a 64 percent clip – for 374 yards and five touchdowns. He also scored on a 10-yard scamper late in the fourth quarter.

And his receiving corps, consisting of two freshmen, one sophomore and one junior, is outstanding. That group is led by sophomore Brayden Trimble. He hauled in 11 receptions for 176 yards and one score.

“Their athletes really put you in a bind,” EHS coach Brett Hefner said. “We tried keeping the ball away from them by grinding it out. But when their offense was on the field, they spread you out and do a good job of getting the ball to their athletes in space.

“It’s been this way the last few years,” Hefner added. “They’ve had guys that can make plays. And this year, that No. 11 (Trimble) is really good.”

It didn’t take long for the Braves to show their arsenal. On the very first play, Adams threw a 32-yard completion to Jacob Harvey – one of those freshmen. It took Mt. Zion eight total plays and 2:28 – their longest possession of the game – to score. That came on a fourth down, 34-yard strike to Harvey to make it 7-0.

The Hearts had difficulty moving the ball their first two possessions and early in the second period, the Braves found the endzone again. This time it was a nine-play drive that lasted 2:07. It was culminated by a six-yard strike from Adams to tight end JC Anderson – the other freshman – to put the guests on top 13-0.

And then the Hearts ground attack got going.

Taking over at its own 18-yard line, EHS began pounding the ball at the Mt. Zion defensive front. A steady diet of runs by Weldon Dunston and Tanner Pontious, had the Hearts moving the ball. Fifteen of the 16 plays were runs and capped by a five-yard burst up the middle from Evan Waymoth to get the hosts on the scoreboard and narrow the gap to 13-7.

Mt. Zion’s lone turnover came on its next possession. Under pressure, Adams threw an errant pass that was picked off by Armando Estrada, giving the Hearts the ball at the Braves 32.

This drive took just one play and six seconds. Tight end Connor Thompson got behind the Mt. Zion secondary and Pontious hit him in stride for the quick TD. That gave the Hearts a 14-13 advantage, which they took to the locker room at intermission.

From a ball control standpoint, the two teams were polar opposites the second half.

The Braves ran a total of 14 plays, while the Hearts ran 50 plays and had the ball all but three of the 24 minutes.

Effingham put together an impressive 14-play drive that took a little more than six minutes off the clock to open the third quarter. But a costly motion penalty turned a first and goal from the two into a third and long. The Hearts had to settle on a 26-yard field goal by Estrada to make it 17-13.

Coach Hefner decided to try an onside kick. It would have worked, but the kick didn’t go the mandatory 10 yards. The Hearts were also called for a penalty on the play and the Braves had the ball at the EHS 38.

Six plays and 55 seconds later, the Adams-to-Trimble connection worked again, this time from five yards out. A two-point conversion try failed and the Braves led 19-17.

The two teams then traded scores the rest of the game.

The Hearts followed with a 10-play drive that took 4:09. Pontious, who was the workhorse in the second half, scored on a six-yard burst to put EHS back in front. He also had a 42-yard completion to Caden Walls. Their two-point try also failed and the score was 23-19.

Effingham had another 16-play drive that took over eight minutes, with Pontious again scoring from one yard out.

The Braves responded with two scoring drives, both of 80 yards. The first took two plays and 44 seconds and the second was four plays and 88 seconds. One was an 87-yard pass and run to McAtee and the other was the scoring run by Adams.

That score came with just 1:28 to play and Mt. Zion leading 33-30. After the ensuing kickoff, the Hearts had the ball at their own 36.

A 10-yard run by Pontious got the drive started. He connected on passes to Andrew Lotz for eight yards and Garrett Wolfe for nine, plus the Hearts got help when the Braves were penalized 15 yards for a horse collar tackle.

Estrada then came through with a 35-yard field goal as time expired to knot the score at 33-33 and send the game into overtime.

In OT, both teams get the ball at the 10 and have four plays to score.

After the coin flip, the Hearts had the ball first. Two running plays moved the ball to three, but a third down run resulted in the loss of a yard. Hefner decided to go for the field goal and Estrada again came through, knocking it through the uprights from 21 yards out.

“We talked about going for it on fourth down,” Hefner explained. “But we needed to get some points to put at least a little pressure on them. Had we not gone backwards on third down, I probably would have gone for the touchdown on fourth down.”

After an incompletion on first down, Mt. Zion won the game when Adams connected with McAtee, who ran a slant pattern into the endzone.

“This was a good game,” Hefner said. “A mistake here and a mistake there ultimately cost us the game. In the end, they just made one more play than we did.”

The Hearts had their biggest offensive output of the season, racking up 447 total yards. They ran the ball 70 times for 305 yards and Pontious finished 9-for-14 for 142 yards in the air.

Pontious also ran for 163 yards on 28 carries – 23 of those carries and 134 yards coming in the second half.

“With Chris (Hemwall) out with an injury, we brought Evan back in on defense,” Hefner noted. “We don’t normally run Tanner that much, but after that, we thought he was our best option running the ball.

“He also threw the ball well,” Hefner added. “When he had a chance to make some throws, he made them. He did a lot for us tonight and had a big game. I just hate it we came up short.”

Effingham had three backs that all carried the ball 20 or more times. In addition to Pontious, Duston ran it 20 times for 75 yards and Waymoth had 24 carries for 56.

The Braves finished with 388 total yards – 374 through the air. They only ran the ball 10 times and gained a total of 14 yards.

“I really thought we could get more pressure on the quarterback than we did,” Hefner said. “When we did get pressure, we did pretty good. We just didn’t do it enough.”

Mt. Zion is now 5-1 overall and 4-1 in the Apollo Conference.

Effingham drops to 3-3 overall and 3-2 in league play. The Hearts will travel to Lincoln next Friday night for their final conference game.

“We will need to regroup,” Hefner said. “We’ll take a look at the film and them come back out to practice to get better. There is still a lot of football left to be played.”