Breese Mater Dei entered the game winless. The Knights had scored just two touchdowns and gained fewer than 400 yards total in two games. Their passing attack had accounted for only 129 yards.

Friday night, the Knights amassed 472 yards, with 324 of those coming through the air. They only completed six passes – and threw two interceptions – but averaged 54 yards per catch. Their receivers were able to get open repeatedly either behind the EHS secondary or make a catch, break a tackle and then out-run the defenders to the end zone.

Their five touchdown plays averaged 70 yards. They included a run of 70 yards, plus TD passes of 83, 74, 46 and 76 yards.

Effingham ran off 64 plays – which is a high number for a high school football game – compared to just 41 for Breese Mater Dei. That type of disparity generally favors the team with the higher number of plays. But when the other team averages 11.5 yards a snap, it doesn’t need a lot of plays to put points on the board.

The numbers are staggering – not typical stats for a football game. But they paint an accurate picture of this game.

It was one virtually everybody in the Hearts camp thought would be a win. There was an excitement about notching that third victory and then opening the conference season next week at home with some momentum.

And just 115 seconds into the contest, all that looked very doable.

After forcing the Knights into a three-and-out on their opening possession, it took the Hearts just three plays to get on the scoreboard first. After quarterback Jaxon Bridges connected with Maxx Kistler on the first two plays to move the ball to midfield, Weldon Dunston IV took a handoff, broke loose up the middle, then cut toward the sideline and raced 50 yards for the touchdown. Unfortunately, that was Effingham’s lone explosive play of the game.

At the 10:05 mark, Effingham had a quick 7-0 lead.

Two plays later, it looked like the Hearts would increase that lead. Junior safety Wade Bushur picked off a pass and returned it to the BMD 37-yard line. Five running plays had EHS knocking on the goal line again with a first and goal at the six.

But the next three runs gained only two yards and when a fourth down pass fell incomplete in the end zone, the Knights took over at their own four. And it didn’t take long for the complexion of the game to change.

Two running plays gained a first down. Three plays later – on third down – Knights quarterback Chase Jansen found tight end Elliott Rakers running all by himself down the middle of the field. Jansen hit Rakers in stride and he rambled 83 yards for the tying score.

It was still anybody’s game at halftime. Breese Mater Dei compiled 250 yards in the first two quarters and added their second score at the 3:23 mark of the second period. Again, it was one of those explosive plays. Wide receiver Carter Murphy – who had a huge night – took a handoff and headed around the right side. Once he broke loose, nobody was going to catch him. Seventy yards later, the hosts were on top, 14-7.

The Hearts had a chance to tie the score before intermission. Dunston had a 10-yard run and Bridges connected with Kistler for 11 yards and Bushur for 10, moving the ball to the 11-yard line. But the drive stalled from there and Maicol Sefton booted a 34-yard field goal to get the Hearts within 14-10.

Effingham took its final lead early in the third period. After forcing Breese Mater Dei to punt from its own end zone, the Hearts got possession at the 25. It took just one play and only nine seconds for Dunston to cover those 25 yards and put EHS on top, 17-14.

From that point on, however, the game belonged to the Knights. They answered Effingham’s TD with one of their own, a 74-yard strike from Jansen to Murphy. Then on the first play of the fourth quarter, Jansen hooked up with Beckett Wade, this time from 46 yards out to make it 28-17.

The Hearts had one more promising drive. Bridges completed a 29-yard pass to Kaden Koeberlein and added a 14-yard strike to Colton Webb to move the ball to the BMD 11. Again, however, things stalled and Sefton came through, this time knocking a field goal through from 24 yards out to make it a one-possession game, 28-20.

Any hopes of a comeback, however, faded quickly. Just three plays later, Murphy got behind the EHS secondary again, hauled in a pass and raced 76 yards for the clinching score. That came with 7:09 to play.

Not surprisingly, Coach Hefner was not pleased with his team’s performance.

“You give up all those yards passing, you can’t expect to win,” he said. “There are just too many of those kinds of plays. And then offensively, we’ve only got one guy making any plays. One of our quarterbacks has either got to be able to run the ball or we have to be able to throw and catch it. We didn’t get any of that tonight. It was very disappointing.”

Jansen finished the night completing 6-of-15 passes for 324 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions (Bushur had a second interception early in the second quarter). As mentioned before, Murphy had a big game. He ran the ball three times for 96 yards and hauled in four passes for another 195 – accounting for 291 total yards and three scores.

Dunston was the workhorse for the EHS offense. The senior running back carried the ball 26 times for 177 yards and two touchdowns. Bridges and Max Buzzard combined to complete 9-of-24 passes. Buzzard was 0-for-3 and Bridges 9-for-21 for 110 yards.

The Hearts, now 2-1, will return home to Washington Savings Bank Stadium next week. They will face Mattoon in the Apollo Conference opener for both squads. The Green Wave will enter the game 0-3, having lost to Decatur MacArthur, Olney and Monticello.

Game time at Jack Klosterman Field is set for 7 p.m.