It didn’t take long for Effingham to get the ball back. Cory Spour fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Wolfe was at the right spot again, pouncing on the loose ball at the Trojans 39.
This time it took just five plays for the Hearts to light up the scoreboard again. An 18-yard completion from quarterback Nate Thompson to Tristin Duncan was the key play of the drive and Woomer ran it in from four yards out. Osvaldo Angel then booted the extra point.
At the 6:41 mark of the first period – just 5 minutes and 19 seconds into the contest – the Hearts were on top 14-0.
“You don’t get many opportunities for a short field,” Hefner explained. “When you get them, you better take advantage of them. Those turnovers gave us a short field and our guys did a nice job responding.”
The Hearts weren’t as sharp the rest of the first half. They had four penalties and also dropped a pass that would have given them a first down inside the Charleston 10 yard line. There was also a bad punt snap that resulted in a very short kick, setting up a scoring drive for the Trojans.
After that 20-yard punt, Charleston got the ball at the EHS 33. Nelson connected with Sam Schuette over the middle for a 22-yard gain and Spour capped the three-play drive with an 11-yard burst up the middle that trimmed the lead to 14-7 with 2:19 still to play in the opening period.
The Hearts had a promising drive early in the second quarter that was stalled due to a holding penalty. But then they had another “short field” opportunity on their next possession. Charleston’s punter dropped the snap, couldn’t avoid the EHS rush and was tackled, giving Effingham the ball at the Trojans 39
Thompson completed a pass to Duncan for 12 yards and then Donsbach broke a couple tackles and raced 28 yards for a TD. Hefner’s kick made it 21-7, which is what it was when the teams headed to the locker room at halftime.
“We got off to that quick start, but when that happens there’s a tendency to relax a little bit, which is what happened to us,” Hefner said. “We had a couple poor possessions, gave them a short field and they scored. We lost some of our momentum, but our guys recovered and started making some plays again.”
After the season-opening victory at Mahomet-Seymour, Coach Hefner said his team needed to make some explosive plays on offense. A couple of those in the second half Friday night helped the Hearts open up a comfortable lead.
The Hearts got the ball at the Charleston 40 yard line on their second possession of the third period. After a five-yard run by Donsbach, Duncan got behind the Trojans secondary and Thompson found him for a 35-yard scoring strike.
Charleston’s ensuing possession ended when Shawn Cochran blocked a punt, giving the Hearts the ball at the visitors 30.
Thompson again hooked up with Duncan for a 28-yard gain and the quick two-play drive ended when Nate Thompson found brother Connor Thompson in the end zone for the touchdown. Hefner’s boot made it 34-7 with 10:57 to play in the game.
“We haven’t gotten to the point yet where we can recover from a 1st-and-15 or 2nd-and 20,” Hefner explained. “But we’re going to have to make some plays throwing the ball. I thought we showed improvement tonight and I feel we’re building things in the right direction.”
There were plenty of bright spots in the game.
The Hearts ran for 222 yards. Woomer accounted for 123 of those on 22 carries, while Donsbach added 81 more on 12 rushes. Keegan Baker also saw action, carrying the ball four times.
“All three are a little different,” Hefner noted. “Chase is more of a feel guy. He senses the tempo of the run. Trevor and Keegan run at a difference pace and hit the line a little faster than Chase. We’re fortunate to have three guys that can run the ball.”
Thompson, in just his second game at quarterback, completed 14-of-23 passes for 139 yards. He was 7-for-8 in the second half. Duncan hauled in nine of those passes for 118 yards.
For the game, the Hearts finished with 361 total yards.
Another bright spot was a defensive unit that allowed just 132 total yards. And that included six quarterback sacks for a minus-41 yards. Sophomore Logan Heil and senior Austin Herboth combined for five of those sacks.
“Austin has been doing this for two years. He’s a load and tough to handle,” Hefner said. “And Logan is the epitome of someone that just plays hard. He doesn’t over-think things. He just lines up and plays.”
Another key to the victory was containing Spour, Charleston’s talented running back. The Hearts limited him to 62 yards on 15 carries.
“Our game plan on defense was to shut down Spour,” Hefner admitted. “We knew we had to take No. 25 away. He’s pretty good. We felt if we did that, we’d be okay.”
The Hearts are now 2-0 and ranked No. 10 in the Class 4A poll. They will travel to Mattoon Friday night. The Green Wave are 1-1 on the season. They lost to Mt. Zion in their opener and then defeated Taylorville 19-14 this week.
“I saw a number of improvements tonight, but we’ll need to see even more going forward,” Hefner said. “But overall, I thought our guys played pretty well.”
