VIDEO: Hearts Blast Civic Memorial 41-22

VIDEO: EHS vs Bethalto Civic Memorial

The Effingham Hearts knew going into Friday night's home opener against Bethalto Civic Memorial that were taking on a team that had scored 49 and 48 points in their first two contests.

The Hearts didn't let the knowledge faze them, though, as they scored on their first five possessions en route to a 41-22 defeat of the Eagles in a game heard on 979XFM and www.979xfm.com.  

Civic Memorial won the coin toss and deferred taking the ball until the start of the second half. That might have been a fatal mistake. Although the Hearts got the opening kickoff at their 10-yard line, they marched 90 yards in 12 plays and capped the drive with a 26-yard touchdown run by Zach Miller and Michael Carie's kick to take a 7-0 lead and never really looked back.

Photo by Gary Stanfield of Riviera Records. See additional game photos and more on their Facebook page.

The Hearts staged drives of 56, 51, 33 and 23 yards and ran an interception back 67 yards for the other scores. Miller, who finished with his second straight 200+ yard rushing night, scored four touchdowns, adding two runs of two yards and a run of eight yards to go with the opening score. Hearts quarterback Kevin Daugherty scored on an eight-yard run and Michael Carie had the interception for the pick six. Carie had two interceptions on the night and Travis Durbin also had a pick. Add to that fumble recoveries by Drew Vasquez and Billy Arndt and you have the Hearts with five gained balls.

Photo by Gary Stanfield of Riviera Records. See additional game photos and more on their Facebook page.

With nine minutes left in the third quarter, Effingham was up 41-6 and the game had been decided, but Civic Memorial never quit, scoring a touchdown in each of the final two periods to make the game appear closer than it really was.

Miller finished with 220 yards rushing to go with the four touchdowns. Durbin gained 77 yards on 10 carries, Billy Arndt gained 60 yards on eight rushes, Joe Niemann picked up 47 yards in four carries, and Daugherty gained 28 yards in seven rushes.

Daugherty didn't really need to pass the ball much, and didn't. He tried six passes and connected on three of them for 33 yards, including a 21-yarder to Miller and a 10-yarder to Arndt.

Michael Carie had a big night, what with the two interceptions and five extra points to go along with leading the team in tackles with seven and seven kickoffs totaling 377 yards that consistenly kept Civic Memorial pinned well back into their territory. Griffin Paige was second in stops with six. Drew Vasquez, Wyatt Kahley, Joe Niemann and Jordan Coleman each had five stops; Arndt, Travis Durbin, Carter Kistler and Alex Ramos got four tackles; Khole Moran, Tucker Denton and Trevor Rieman each had three stops; two tackles apiece were credited to Hunter Diveley and Carter Hayes; and those with one tackle apiece are Evan Boggs, Zach Miller and Blake White.

Photo by Gary Stanfield of Riviera Records. See additional game photos and more on their Facebook page.

Civic Memorial's quarterback, Adam Hill, attempted a whopping 50 passes and hit on 25 of them for 274 yards and a touchdown.

Teamwise, Effingham ran 66 plays and gained 471 yards. The Hearts totaled 25 first downs, all but one gained on the ground. Time of possession was impressive; Effingham had the ball 30:39 of the game, compared to 17:21 for Civic Memorial. The Hearts also had just six penalties in the game, and only one in the second half.

Effingham improved to 2-1 on the season with the win and will be back in action next week, hosting the Charleston Trojans in the Apollo Conference opener for both schools. Kickoff will be at 7pm with the pregame show at 6:45pm. Hear the action from Klosterman Field on 979XFM and www.979xfm.