“It’s still a work in progress,” Heffner noted. “Some parts were good. Some parts were bad. We’re going to look at the film and then fix what didn’t work so well.”

But when you remove a lineman to add to pass coverage, it opens up other opportunities. For Mattoon, that was the running game. The Green Wave ran for 304 yards, with senior running back Trsyten Sewell accounting for 218 of those.

“It’s a numbers game,” Hefner explained. “If you take someone out of the box, it means you’re more vulnerable to the run, which we were tonight. We have to find a balance.”

If there were any remaining effects from last week’s tough loss, those were forgotten quickly. The Hearts scored three first-quarter touchdowns during a 6½-minute span and were never threatened.

The EHS defense forced Mattoon into a 3-and-out on its first possession. After a short punt, the Hearts had the ball at the Green Wave 40. Three plays later, they were in the end zone. Dunston carried the ball on each snap, breaking loose on the third play for a 34-yard scamper that put the home team on top, 7-0, at the 8:59 mark.

Mattoon was stopped on its next two possessions, but failed to get a punt off either time. Nolan Fearday blocked both punts. The first was scooped up by Logan Jones, who then raced 36 yards for the TD.

After Fearday’s second blocked punt, the Hearts had the ball at the Mattoon 30. This time, it took five plays to find the end zone.

Dunston got things started with an 18-yard run and then hauled in a short pass from quarterback Jaxon Bridges that gave the Hearts a first down inside the five. On the fifth play, Dunston covered the final three yards to put Effingham up 21-0 with 2:13 still left in the opening period.

By halftime, EHS had extended its lead to 35-6. The Hearts used two explosive plays in the second quarter to build that margin. One was a 56-yard breakaway by Dunston and the other was a 45-yard strike from Bridges to Maxx Kistler, who had got behind the Mattoon secondary.

It was pretty much all offense the second half.

The Green Wave had three possessions and scored on each drive. They used the running of Sewell and Cale Kimbro to find running lanes in the EHS defense. They ran 21 offensive plays in the final two quarters and 17 of them were on the ground. Sewell scored on runs of 15 and 55 yards.

“We made some mistakes on defense tonight, but we expected that,” Hefner said. “These kids have not played this scheme before. So, they’re still learning. But we’ll keep working on it and they’ll get better.”

The Hearts got a 26-yard field goal by Maicol Sefton on their opening possession of the second half and then added two Dunston TDs on runs of 63 and 5 yards.

The new fullback, D.J. Latham, accounted for 32 yards in the game, running the ball twice for 11 yards and hauling in a pass from Bridges for another 21. And new tight end, Rylan Pals – who stepped in for Colton Webb, who was lost for the season due to injury – caught two passes for 44 yards.

“We’re going to lean on Weldon, but we also need production from other players,” Hefner said. “It was nice to get that tonight. D.J. and Rylan stepped up and I thought both quarterbacks did some good things. We made some plays in our passing game tonight.”

The dual QBS – Bridges and Max Buzzard – combined to go 7-for-8 for 140 yards. Kistler and Pals both had a pair of receptions, while Dunston, Lathan and Brayden Tucker each had one.

But it was Dunston that once again carried the offense. The senior back ran the ball 28 times for 289 yards and five touchdowns. He has now gained 875 yards on the season – an average of 219 a game – and has recorded 15 TDs.

The Hearts finished with 462 total yards of offense – 322 on the ground and 140 through the air. They didn’t have a turnover, but forced four, including Wade Bushur’s sixth interception of the season. Kaden Koeberlein also had a fumble recovery.

“We have a number of guys that are playing very well right now,” Hefner said. “Our challenge now is to get more players performing at a high level. That’s what we need.”

The Hearts, who improved to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the Apollo Conference, will be at Washington Savings Bank Stadium again next week for Homecoming. They will face Charleston, who is also 3-1, having dropped its conference opener Friday night to Mahomet-Seymour.