By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
The Effingham Hearts are coming off a second half performance last week that can only be described one way.
Dominant.
They amassed 247 of their 399 yards and scored 35 points after intermission, finishing with a 42-0 victory in Charleston to notch their first win of the season.
After 10 sub-par quarters to open the 2021 fall campaign, the Hearts looked like a different football team in the final two quarters last Friday night. They controlled the line of scrimmage, pounded the ball on the ground and eliminated the mistakes that had plagued them through the first 2½ games.
Head coach Brett Hefner hopes to see more of that this week as Effingham prepares to host Mattoon in an Apollo Conference match-up at Jack Klosterman Field.
The Hearts and Green Wave have identical records. Both are 1-2 overall and 1-1 in the Apollo Conference.
Mattoon dropped its first two games of the season, losing 26-13 to Troy Triad and 31-7 to Mt. Zion. The Green Wave also got their first win last week, posting a 12-9 win over Taylorville.
“I thought we executed much better in that second half last week,” Hefner admitted. “We did control the line of scrimmage, plus we didn’t have silly penalties that got us behind the chains. Hopefully, the confidence the kids built up from that will carryover this week.”
Hefner has a lot of respect for Mattoon.
“They are always well-coached,” he noted. “They will give high effort and won’t make anything easy for you. This will be a big test for us.”
He’s not sure what to expect from the Green Wave offensively.
By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
Missed blocking assignments, poor tackling and wrong coverages in the secondary.
Dropped passes, untimely penalties and turnovers.
You name the mistake and the Effingham Hearts probably made it during the first two games of the 2021 football season.
And you might as well add the first half of Friday night’s game at Charleston, as well.
As one assistant coach said as he walked back on to the field after intermission, while describing Effingham’s play – “that was ugly.”
EHS coach Brett Hefner, after watching hours of game film the past two weeks, was convinced virtually all of the mistakes were fixable. But even though his team was ahead at halftime, he was not happy with the performance he had seen the first 24 minutes.
Whatever he said to his squad, however, made an impact. It was a different football team in the second half.
The Hearts were dominant. Totally dominant in every phase of the game.
It took them four plays and just 64 seconds to score and that was just the beginning. They added four more touchdowns in the second half.
And when the final seconds ticked off the clock, the Hearts celebrated their first win of the season, a 42-0 thrashing of the Trojans.
By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
There are always key factors in every football game.
Turnovers and untimely penalties many times can determine the outcome.
But those did not play a role Friday night.
What did, you ask?
“If you can’t block people, you can’t beat people.”
That’s what Effingham coach Brett Hefner told his team moments following their 37-7 defeat to Mahomet-Seymour.
And he was exactly right.
The visiting Bulldogs dominated the line of scrimmage from the opening snap. The Hearts ran 53 plays in the game and had negative yardage on 16 of those. The Bulldogs recorded five quarterback sacks and tackled an EHS running back for loss 11 more times.
“We were inept offensively,” Hefner admitted. “There’s a reason we’ve had success running the ball in the past. Every year but this year we’ve handled people on the line of scrimmage. But not tonight.
“There was nowhere for our backs to go,” Hefner added. “And throwing the ball? If you can’t protect, you can’t make throws. If you can’t control the line of scrimmage, there’s just not much you can do.”
That, plus the talented receiver duo the Bulldogs possess – Dream Eagle and Quenton Rogers – were simply too much and helped the Apollo Conference favorites ruin the Hearts home opener at Jack Klosterman Field.
By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
It’s no secret the Effingham Hearts have struggled during their first two football games of the 2021 season.
It’s the first time since 2013 the Hearts have started the year at 0-2.
It’s also no secret EHS was handed a brutal schedule this year, starting with their first two opponents – Decatur St. Teresa and Mahomet-Seymour – and have been outscored 79-14.
The Hearts will try to put those two losses behind them when they travel to Charleston in search of their first victory Friday night.
“The kids have come to practice with plenty of energy and are still working hard,” EHS coach Brett Hefner said. “We hope we can put it all together this week.”
The Trojans will enter the Apollo Conference contest at 1-1. Their opening-week win was the result of a forfeit by Robinson due to COVID issues. Last week, Charleston dropped a 14-6 decision to Lincoln.
If the Hearts want to notch that first win, however, they must improve controlling the line of scrimmage. They were contained by St. Teresa and totally dominated by Mahomet-Seymour.
“After watching the film of the Mahomet game, many of our problems were self-inflicted,” Hefner noted. “We missed a lot of blocking assignments. It was very frustrating to watch that. I can say we’re getting closer, but at some point, you simply have to start making plays.”
A quick look at the stats tells a compelling story.
By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
Brett Hefner is just one of many, many coaches that believe the most improvement a team will show is between the first and second week of a season.
He is hoping that’s the case this week for his football team.
The Effingham Hearts are coming off a 42-7 season-opening loss at Decatur St. Teresa.
And even though it’s a different team Friday night with a different style of play, the quality of opponent will remain the same – tough.
The Hearts will welcome the Mahomet-Seymour Bulldogs to Jack Klosterman Field. The Bulldogs are an experienced team that’s favored to win the Apollo Conference title and are coming off a 40-14 win at Canton in their opener.
“It doesn’t get any easier, that’s for sure,” Hefner admitted. “It will be a tough game and will be a dramatically different type of game schematically on both sides of the ball.
“On offense, they’re going to spread it out and they’re going to throw it a lot more,” the veteran coach explained. “Defensively, they’re going to be in an odd front and probably bring six people on every play. They will show a lot of movement and a lot blitzing.
“They present a lot of things you have to prepare for,” Hefner continued. “For a young team like us, it adds to the learning curve. They were a challenge to prepare for last year, even with all our experience. When you’ve got 10 new starters on defense like we do, it does present a challenge.”
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