Up to that point in the second quarter, however, things weren’t looking too good. The Hearts scored on their first possession, completing a six-play drive in a little under two minutes with a 17-yard catch and run by Jett Gillum.
But the next 13 minutes belonged to Prairie Central.
The Hawks started with an 11-play, 7 minute, 41 second drive that stalled at the Effingham 21. But after the Hearts went 3-and-out, Prairie Central tied the game shortly after. Corbin Moser ran 17 yards to get the 52-yard drive started and quarterback Kaden King capped the drive by breaking loose in the pocket and rambling 24 yards for the score.
The Hearts fumbled on their next possession and the Hawks took advantage immediately. On their very first play, King found Moser behind the EHS secondary for a 51-yard scoring strike, putting the No. 10 seed on top, 14-7.
Up to that point, King and that triple option was controlling play and Effingham’s defense was definitely on its heels.
“That first half wasn’t a good reflection of how we’ve been playing,” Hefner noted. “We made some uncharacteristic mistakes and they took advantage. When you don’t follow your assignment against a team like that, you pay for it. We just had too many breakdowns.”
With 8:27 left in the first half, the Hearts offense then put together what just might have been the most important scoring drive of the season. Rather than going for the explosive play, Effingham started pounding the ball on the ground and looking for the shorter passes.
A 15-yard pass play to Cam Kalber, who had a career day, got the drive moving. Quarterback Nate Shackelford, who didn’t have any breakaway runs during the game, did have four carries for 22 yards, and senior Logan Brown, getting stronger and stronger after suffering an ankle injury earlier in the season, carried the ball five more times and capped the 12-play drive with a five-yard burst to tie the game at 14-14.
The Hearts had a golden opportunity right before halftime after a bad punt snap by Prairie Central, gave EHS the ball at the 15, but with just 8 seconds left. A short pass to Chase Woomer moved the ball to the 10, but a last-second field goal attempt sailed right.
“We had a bad first half,” Hefner admitted. “But at half, I just told the guys to play like they can play. Even though we played bad, it was still a tie game. I told them to just be the 2019 Hearts.
“There were a lot of guys that took some yelling that first half,” the veteran coach added. “But these are resilient kids. We coach them hard and they take it. They don’t sulk. They don’t pout. They just bounce back and play hard. I love our kids.”
The domination that started in the second period continued over into the second half in a big way. Prairie Central’s first two possessions resulted in three plays and a punt. But the Hearts followed with the same attack they used to end the first half.
Beginning at their own 12, they proceeded to put together their second 12-play scoring drive; this one taking 6:34. Woomer, Brown and Shackelford each ran the ball three times. Possibly the key play of the entire day was a one-yard run by Brown on fourth down that was ruled a first down by the slimmest of margins and kept the go-ahead scoring drive alive rather than giving the ball back to the Hawks in great field position.
After that, Kalber had 24-yard and 9-yard receptions and the drive culminated with a beautiful 23-yard, over-the-shoulder touchdown catch by Tristin Duncan to put the Hearts on top to stay at the 3:18 mark of the third period.
Less than a minute later, the Hearts were back at it again, this time starting from the Hawks 49.
This drive featured two clutch third down receptions. The first was a 17-yard catch by Parker Wolfe, who hung onto the ball despite being hit hard. The second was an 18-yard catch by Duncan.
The 11-play drive that took 5:28 was capped again by Brown, who rambled into the end zone from four yards out to make it a two-score deficit and extend the Hearts lead to 27-14.
“We were finally able to establish our run game,” Hefner said. “Prairie Central makes you earn everything. But they have a lot of guy that play both ways. I thought we were able to wear them down in the second half and that was a key to this game. Our depth was a big factor.”
Prairie Central didn’t pass the ball much the entire season. But after falling behind by two scores with just 8:42 to play, they got away from that running game and the Hearts secondary made them pay.
First it was Luke Spencer that stepped in front of a King pass at the 6:25 mark. And following an Effingham punt, Wolfe set a new school record by picking off his 12th pass of the season, giving the Hearts the ball with only 2:55 to play. That set off a celebration along the EHS sideline and throughout the stands that was packed with Hearts fans that made the two-plus hour trip to Fairbury.
Prairie Central came into the contest averaging more than 300 yards a game on the ground alone. The Hawks were limited to only 164. King, who ran for 412 yards in the first two playoff games, was limited to 93 on the ground and completed just 1-of-9 passes for 51 yards and had those two fourth-quarter interceptions.
The Hearts racked up 302 total yards, with 118 coming on the ground and 184 through the air. Shackelford was nearly perfect, completing 12-of-13 attempts. Woomer had 45 rushing yards and Brown added another 43. Kalber had four receptions for 88 yards to lead the receiving corps.
Now the Hearts will face a talented 10-2 Murphysboro team for the right to advance to the state championship.
“To be at this point, to get the opportunity to play in the semifinals is a great accomplishment,” Hefner said. “And to be a part of this group of young men is pretty special.”
The other Class 4A semifinal game will feature two undefeated (12-0) teams – Coal City and Richard-Burton. Coal City beat Wheaton St. Francis 25-7; and Richard-Burton eliminated Elmhurst Immaculate Conception 24-14.
The winners of the two semifinal games will play Friday, Nov. 29, at Huskie Stadium on the Northern Illinois University campus in DeKalb. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
