Mahomet-Seymour has very talented junior and sophomore classes and has just 11 seniors on its varsity roster. And the Bulldogs return 18 starters.

On offense, they feature a strong-armed quarterback in junior Wyatt Bohm and two outstanding receivers in junior Quenton Rogers and senior Dream Eagle.

“We have to keep the ball out of their hands,” Hefner said. “We can’t turn the ball over and we can’t allow them any big plays.

“Defensively, we’ll probably have to take a few chances,” Hefner added. “Those two receivers are big and fast and their quarterback does a nice job throwing the ball. We can’t let him stand back there and throw the ball all night. We can’t let him get comfortable.”

Turnovers were very costly against St. Teresa. The Hearts fumbled on their third play of the game, which led to a quick touchdown, and then again on the ensuing kickoff, setting up a second score just two minutes later. Those two turnovers, plus the inability to move the ball in the opening 15 minutes, put EHS in a 28-point hole after the first quarter.

“I thought our kids competed well, played hard and tried to do the right things,” Hefner noted. “But at the end of the day, we made too many mistakes, too early. We dug ourselves too big of a hole to get out of.”

For the remaining three quarters, the Hearts battled St. Teresa on fairly even terms. Their running game – especially John Westendorf and Tanner Pontious – was much more effective and put together several impressive drives. Four quarterback sacks and some untimely penalties, however, caused all but one of those drives to stall.

“Right now, it’s just hard for us to overcome those types of mistakes,” Hefner said. “I thought, as the game went on, we did some good things offensively; just not enough to finish off drives. You could tell it was the first varsity game for several of our players.”

Westendorf, a junior running back, finished with 95 yards on 20 carries. Pontious, another junior starting his first game at quarterback, actually ran for another 70, but because of the sacks, his net rushing for the game was only 36 yards. He also completed 5-of-9 passes for 75 yards, including a 42-yard scoring strike to Dalton Fox in the third quarter.

“I thought Tanner did some good things,” Hefner noted. “Obviously, the fumble early was not a good way to start. But he made a couple nice throws and he showed he can use his legs to gain yardage. He will just keep getting better each week.”

Defensively, the Hearts gave up 335 total yards in the opener. But 218 of those yards came in the first half as those 10 new starters were getting acclimated to varsity football.

“We settled in a little more, especially after that first quarter,” Hefner said. “We’ll learn from that game and, hopefully, our offense will help out a little more.”

It will be the home opener, as well as the conference opener Friday night.

“It will be nice to have a home game and not another hour and a half bus ride with masks on,” Hefner said. “I think we’ll have a nice crowd, which I know our kids will like. Plus, the weather is supposed to be good.”

Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.