Hearts Celebrate Homecoming w/Big Win Over Paris

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The Effingham Hearts celebrated Homecoming in style Friday night with a 25-6 win over the Paris Tigers.  The Apollo Conference contest was heard on 979XFM and www.979xfm.com including our first live video streaming of a ballgame.

The Hearts established control of the game early, scoring with 10:06 left in the opening quarter on a 10-yard touchdown run by Logan Howell to complete a six-play, 62-yard drive.  Effingham got the ball right back on a turnover at Paris' 32-yard line and scored three plays later on a 21-yard touchdown strike by Nathan Vail to Caydin Vaughn.  The try for two was unsuccessful, but the Hearts were up 12-0 just three and a half minutes into the contest.

Effingham scored again on a six-play drive that ended with 8:20 left in the second quarter when Vail completed a 17-yard pass to Zach Bloemker to increase the lead to 18-0.

Photo by Gary Stanfield of Riviera Records. Check out more of Gary's amazing work here.

The Hearts' final score came with seven seconds remaining in the third quarter when Vail scored from one yard out.  Zach Miller kicked the extra point to give Effingham 25-0 lead.

Paris scored its lone touchdown with 3:05 remaining in the game on a seven-yard run by Stewart Arp.

Effingham picked up 252 rushing yards and 119 yards through the air for 371 yards rushing and receiving.  The Hearts registered 24 first downs. 

Effingham held Paris to 170 yards on the ground and 64 passing yards for 234 yards rushing and receiving. 

The Hearts were also very opportunistic.  Levi Michael and Travis Durbin each recovered a fumble, Dirk Levitt, Marcus Robinson and Cody Sennett each had interceptions, and Andy Lustig blocked a point after kick attempt.

Effingham used several players in their running game.  Logan Howell led the way with 95 yards on 19 carries, Caydin Vaughn carried for 63 yards on six carries, quarterback Nathan Vail rushed 14 times for 42 yards, Zach Miller had four carries for 24 yards, Bill Arndt gained 17 yards on five carries, Tritt Rush carried once for two yards and Kevin Daugherty gained nine yards on two carries.

Vail was 7 of 18 passing for 119 yards.  Vaughn caught six passes for 85 yards and a touchdown while Bloemker caught the 17-yard touchdown pass.

Stewart Arp carried 19 times for Paris for 90 yards while Hunter Morris gained 79 yards on eight carries.  Paris quarterback Riley Spencer completed 4 of 15 passes for 64 yards.

Travis Durbin led Effingham with eight tackles including three solos, while Bill Arndt and Levi Michael each registered six stops, three solos for Arndt, two for Michael.  Cody Sennett had five tackles, four solos.  Brandon Loy had four tackles, two solos.  Three tackles apiece were registered by Tyler Johnson, Andy Salcedo, Scott Deunk, Marcus Robinson, and Zach Miller.  Dirk Levitt, Trent Barnhart and Carter Hayes each had two tackles.  Dustin Levitt, Payton Bushue, Zach Wilson, Noah Hagen and Andy Lustig each had a stop.

Photo by Gary Stanfield of Riviera Records. Check out more of Gary's amazing work here.

The Hearts are now 2-4 on the season, 2-1 in the Apollo Conference.  Paris is now 2-4 on the season, 1-2 in the Apollo.  Effingham heads to Mattoon next Friday for their last road game of the regular season, while Paris will take on Charleston.

Video: EHS vs. Paris

Note: During the first half of the game, we experienced some technical difficulties with the audio feed. This was fixed by the time the Homecoming ceremony took place, and Greg and Millie's call of the game returned for the 2nd half.