By FRED KRONER
What a difference a week makes.
Seven days after allowing 350 yards rushing in the season-opener, the Mahomet-Seymour football team went the other direction – big time – and put together a defensive effort that held state-ranked Highland (No. 7 in Class 5A) to negative yards rushing on Friday (Sept. 1) at Mahomet’s Frank Dutton Field.
The defense had 5.5 sacks and intercepted two passes as the Bulldogs shut out their visitors 28-0.
“Defense was a point of emphasis,” M-S coach Jon Adkins said. “We made that our goal. It was very satisfying and rewarding.
“We got after it in practice with our effort and intensity. It’s a credit to our defensive (coaching) staff for coming up with a great game plan and our kids for executing it.”
The combined efforts of assistant coaches Henry Turek, Jason Murphy, John Lewis, T.J. Wirth, Alex Georgiou and Brady Leeman helped the Bulldogs put together a performance that resulted in the school’s first shutout in 17 games since an 18-0 win over Mattoon on Oct. 15, 2021.
Adkins was optimistic that the first-game loss wouldn’t set the tone for the entire season.
“I told them we could use the loss to fuel us or to crumble us,” Adkins said. “Our energy was up. It was the same guys (playing), with a game under their belts.”
The defensive front, in particular, excelled against Highland.
The grouping of Jack Gallier, Brock VanDeveer, Jayvon Irwin and Noah Frank led the way.
“Highland was big and strong upfront and those four really stood out, getting in the backfield and doing their jobs,” Adkins said.
The story of the game was indeed the defense.
Highland ran the ball 23 times but finished with a total of minus-39 yards rushing. Gallier had two sacks. Finishing with one sack apiece were VanDeveer, Ryken Kirby and Irwin. Henry Wagner was in on half of a sack.
For the second game in a row, Donovan Lewis intercepted a pass. His return was for 40 yards. The team’s other pick was by Brayden Garrett.
The team’s top tacklers were Colby Crowley (seven), Gallier (five), VanDeveer (five), Garrett (four), Irwin (four), Kirby (four), Lewis (four), Wagner (four) and Gage Decker (four).
The home-opener was scoreless until quarterback Lucas Dyer connected on a 20-yard scoring play to Trey Peters with 9 minutes and 57 seconds remaining in the first half.
Jackson Davis converted the first of four extra-point kicks and the M-S lead was 7-0.
Before intermission, the Bulldogs doubled their lead when VanDeveer scored on a 1-yard plunge.
“Once we got over the hump, we got the ball rolling,” Adkins said.
Workhorse Luke Johnson scored both second-half TDs, on a 2-yard scamper with 1:01 left in the third period and on a 6-yard run with 7:30 left in the game.
“Our offensive line held their own and created holes,” Adkins said, “and Luke (Johnson) was great.”
The offensive line features Kolton Metcalf-Poulos at left tackle, Oliver Smith at left guard, Tyson Finch at center, and brothers Noah (right guard) and Philip Daniels (right tackle) beside them.
The Daniels are triplets. Sister Lilyan is a football cheerleader. They are sophomores.
“We call them the Bash Brothers,” Adkins said. “They have so much fun playing next to each other.”
Johnson was called upon for 25 of the team’s 34 running plays and gained 149 yards.
Dyer completed 15 of 21 passes for 138 yards. His favorite target was Johnson, who snared six passes for an additional 59 yards, giving him 208 all-purpose yards in the game.
Gavin Hammerschmidt and Raymond Long each had three receptions. Braden Pagel caught two passes and Peters had the one catch for the Bulldogs’ first aerial TD of the year.
“This was a very good win for our program,” Adkins said. “We had a packed house and a great environment.”
One Bulldog (linebacker Ethan Esker) sat out the home-opener with an injury. Noah Scott took his place. Adkins is optimistic that Esker will return soon.
M-S (1-1) returns to action on Friday (Sept. 8) at Quincy Notre Dame (0-2), which is coming off a loss to Class 4A power Richmond-Burton. It will mark the first of two road trips to Quincy for the Bulldogs in a seven-week span.
“QND is the best 0-2 team I have ever seen,” Adkins said. “They are big and strong, and have a quarterback who can sling it.”
QND, coached by ex-Illini and QND graduate Jack Cornell, will be playing its home-opener.
