Eagle, one of just 11 seniors on the team, hauled in eight passes for 132 yards, while Rogers, a junior, caught six passes for 100 yards and two touchdowns, plus added a back-breaking 99-yard kickoff return to open the second half. Junior quarterback Wyatt Bohm threw for 281 yards.

“Those two receivers are very good,” Hefner said. “If you can’t get pressure on the quarterback, you have to bring extra guys. But when you do that, you leave yourself open for big plays. The last few years, we’ve been blessed to have kids that can get to the quarterback. But we haven’t been able to do that yet this year.”

The Hearts got the opening kickoff, but Mahomet-Seymour’s defense set the tone from the opening play. John Westendorf had a two-yard gain and then quarterback Tanner Pontious was sacked on consecutive plays, forcing the punt.

In the opening half, EHS ran a total of 27 plays, but gained just 33 total yards. Pontious was sacked four times and threw three incomplete passes.

But the Hearts were still in the game at halftime, trailing just 10-0.

The Bulldogs fumbled the ball away twice in the opening 24 minutes, including on their first drive that had reached the Hearts 2. But on a fourth down play, the ball was snapped over Bohm’s head and Effingham’s Connor Thompson recovered.

After an ensuing punt, Mahomet-Seymour took over at the EHS 49 and struck immediately. In fact, it was the first play. Bohm found Rogers for a 49-yard scoring strike that put the Bulldogs on top to stay.

The Hearts got a 38-yard run by Pontious late in the first period to get the ball inside the MSHS 40. But the drive stalled from there. The Bulldogs turned around and fumbled again, this time recovered by Charlie Ring, giving Effingham the ball at the Mahomet-Seymour 16. That possession ended when Pontious was sacked again.

Mahomet-Seymour made it 10-0 when Kyle Walmer booted a 27-yard field goal at the 3:50 mark of the second period.

“Our defense battled their butts off that first half. It was a testament to them we were only down 10-0 at halftime,” Hefner said. “But I knew we were just plugging the dam. At some point, I knew we had to play offense. But that never happened. And that kickoff return didn’t help.”

Rogers took that kickoff at the one, broke a couple tackles and then raced 99 yards for the score – the first of four second half touchdowns for the Bulldogs.

They also got a 13-yard scoring run from Valient Walsh, a 26-yard strike from Bohm to Rogers and a three-yard burst from Luke Johnson to wrap up the scoring.

The Hearts did get on the scoreboard late in the game. They put together a nine-play – all on the ground – 86-yard scoring drive against the Bulldogs second team defense. Westendorf carried the ball on six consecutive plays and accounted for 62 of the yards. Chris Hemwall then came in and took care of the rest, scoring on a two-yard run with just 23 seconds left.

The Hearts finished with 158 total yards on offense, with 86 of those coming on that final possession. Westendorf finished with 51 yards on the ground on 14 carries. Pontious had 43 rushing yards on 19 carries. The junior QB completed just 1-of-10 passes for 41 yards and had an interception.

The Bulldogs compiled 359 offensive yards. They had 78 yards on the ground and Bohm completed 17-of-30 passes for 281 yards and no interceptions.

Mahomet-Seymour improved to 2-0 and 1-0 in the Apollo Conference.

The Hearts dripped to 0-2 and 0-1 in league play. They will travel to Charleston next Friday.

“We had a lot of problems and just weren’t very good tonight,” Hefner said. “So, we’re going to watch film and come up with a game plan for Charleston.”