By FRED KRONER
Coordinating the defense for the Mahomet-Seymour football team is not a one-man job.
Assistant coach Henry Turek makes the calls for the linemen and linebackers. Another assistant, Jason Murphy, takes care of the calls for the defensive backs.
“It’s like having two defenses,” M-S head coach Jon Adkins said “We might give one look from the box and one from the secondary on a second-and-5, and the next time it might look completely different.
“It’s how many looks can you give to cause quarterback confusion?”
The Bulldogs’ defense was never more effective overall this season than during a 42-0 homecoming win at Frank Dutton Field on Friday (Sept. 22) against Taylorville, which opened the season with three consecutive wins.
M-S limited the Tornadoes to 20 yards of total offense, eight yards rushing and 12 yards passing.
Taylorville’s only first down came with 1 minute and 46 seconds left in the first quarter on a fourth-and-1 from the M-S 27-yard line.
The Tornadoes had 33 non-punting plays from scrimmage overall. Just two gained as much as 4 yards. The team’s 10 first-down plays generated a total of 18 yards.
“Pretty amazing,” Adkins said. “We played well on that side of the ball. That’s credited to the staff and the players for executing. Just outstanding.”
The defense, which posted its second shutout in the past four weeks, had a multitude of heroes.
Jack Gallier, Ethan Esker and Jayvon Irwin all deflected passes.
Irwin and Esker continually applied quarterback pressure.
Esker twice had tackles for loss. Brock VanDeveer had a tackle for loss as did Henry Wagner and Austin Crull.
Some of the standout individual plays were due to good teamwork.
“Ethan got a sack due to the attention Brock got,” Adkins said. “Brock showed blitz, then backed off and Ethan came through free.”
Irwin recovered a fumble.
VanDeveer had a team-high seven tackles. Esker, Irwin and Wagner all had four stops. Finishing with three tackles were Gallier, Noah Frank and Tyler Majeres.
Taylorville never penetrated as far as the M-S 50-yard line and only reached their own 48 after recovering an onsides kick at that point.
“Our kids on that side knew the scouting report, the communication was incredible and they played fast and physical,” Adkins said. “We can want things to happen, but we’ve got to make them happen.
“What you don’t see in the stats are Jack Gallier or Noah Frank or Henry Wagner or Tyler Majeres or Evan Anderson doing their jobs to get a running back to cut back or direct a play (to a teammate). They do their job incredibly well to make it all happen.”
After an interception stopped the Bulldogs’ first offensive possession, M-S reached the end zone on each of its next three possessions.
With rushing leader Luke Johnson missing a second consecutive game with an ankle injury, sophomore Cade Ashby became the workhorse out of the backfield.
He was called upon 31 times – more than double the number of carries he had in his first four varsity outings and rambled for 131 yards, mostly all off-tackle left or off-tackle right.
Ashby scored the game’s first TD on a 4-yard run with 4:27 left in the first quarter.
The first of four conversion kicks by Jackson Davis lifted the Bulldogs into a 7-0 cushion.
The TD enabled M-S to get the same amount of points it would have had when it received the ball for the possession and punt-returner Braden Pagel on a 46-yard, reverse-field jaunt reached the end zone only to have the play nullified by a holding call.
On the second Bulldog possession, quarterback Lucas Dyer orchestrated a 15-play scoring drive that covered 61 yards. Ashby’s 2-yard scoring run came at the end of a possession that took nearly 5 minutes off the clock.
“We call him ‘Mike Alstott’ (a reference to a former Purdue and NFL fullback) because he’s our bruiser,” Adkins said of the 5-foot-8, 180-pound Ashby. “He gets the tough yards between the tackles.”
Before halftime, the Bulldogs lost a second special-teams TD when a 72-yard punt return by Donovan Lewis was also called back by a 15-yard penalty.
They were part of 10 penalties whistled on M-S during the game’s opening 24 minutes.
“I was pretty upset by the lack of overall discipline and making those silly mistakes in the first half,” Adkins said. “After a pretty good conversation (at halftime), we showed how we play good Bulldog football.”
M-S was assessed one second-half penalty and it was on an illegal procedure call.
Overall, more than two-thirds of the Bulldogs’ offensive plays (46 of 67) were runs.
Dyer was effective when throwing the ball, connecting on 14 of 21 attempts for 190 yards and four TDs, which tied his career high.
Trey Peters hauled in three of the scoring strikes, totaling 108 receiving yards. His TDs were on plays of 29, 58 and 13 yards.
Pagel nabbed the other aerial TD on an 18-yard pass.
Adkins said the pre-game plan is to be prepared to run or to pass, depending what the defense shows.
Taylorville dictated the action on Friday.
”They stayed in their pass defense,” Adkins said. “They said they were going to make a sophomore beat us (Ashby) and not a kid who had thrown for two straight 300-yard games (Dyer).
“Cade ran hard. Our kids stayed patient and we hit a couple of play-action passes when we felt they’d fallen asleep. We had to take advantage of what they were giving.”
The Bulldogs’ rushing attack registered a season-best performance, 195 yards on the ground.
“Our offensive line stepped up to the challenge,” Adkins said, “and played very well against a good box. Their defensive tackle is hard to move.”
Dyer eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark for passing yards in his fifth varsity game (reaching 1,162 passing yards) and has completed 64.8 percent of his passes.
“He’s a pretty special kid,” Adkins said. “He has natural instinct and understanding. He reminds me of a young Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs quarterback).
“He has excellent release and snaps it off. I’m glad he’s our special kid.”
When the Bulldogs got a running clock in play for the game’s final 10 minutes and 42 seconds, Dyer was replaced at the quarterback position by his cousin, Ryan Pruitt.
Adkins doesn’t sense any rivalry between the relatives.
“They get along so well, you’d think they’re brothers,” he said.
In addition to the yards gained on the ground by Ashby, Ryken Kirby ripped off gains of 48 yards on six carries in the final period.
Gavin Hammerschmidt, Raymond Long, Pagel and Peters have all caught at least one pass in each of the first five M-S games.
The Bulldogs (4-1 overall) continue their three-game homestand on Friday (Sept. 29) when they play host to unbeaten Mount Zion (5-0), which is coming off a 35-14 win at home over Mattoon.
M-S and Mount Zion are the only two Apollo Conference members unbeaten in league play. Both schools have 2-0 records against Apollo opponents and the winner will be in the driver’s seat for the conference crown.
“If you’re a football fan, you should be there,” Adkins said. “The buildup is that this could be one of the best games of the year.
“I’m happy our kids have put themselves in position to be in this spot. I’m proud of what they’ve done.”
Against Mount Zion, the Bulldogs will need to contend with the state’s top receiving leader, junior Brayden Trimble (36 catches, 589 yards and eight TDs), according to Maxpreps. The 6-foot, 170-pound Trimble recently received a scholarship offer from Iowa.
The Mount Zion Braves’ quarterback, Makobi Adams, stands second in the state in passing yards after five games with 1,457 yards.
Adkins said it’s about “50-50” whether Luke Johnson will be available this week.
Four individuals were enshrined in the M-S Schools Foundation Hall of Fame in a pre-game ceremony before the Taylorville game: Dirk Handlin (Class of 1992), James Heinold (Class of 1989), Karl Welke (Class of 1985) and long-time drama teacher Judy Swiger, who passed away in 2020.
