Hearts on the Road at Taylorville Friday Night

The Effingham Hearts will be looking for a football win Friday night that would make them playoff-eligible.

Effingham travels to Taylorville to take on the Tornadoes in Apollo Conference action. Kickoff will be at 7pm. Pre-game coverage will begin at 6:45pm on 979XFM and www.979xfm.com. 

A win for the Hearts would improve their season record to 5-1. It's not guaranteed that five wins will get you into the playoffs, but that number has seemed to work in recent seasons.

The Hearts opened their season with back-to-back wins, 54-30 over Robinson and 26-22 at Mt. Carmel. Effingham then suffered their only loss to this point, 35-20 at Breese Mater Dei. The Hearts then completed the Coles County sweep, downing Mattoon 52-29 and Charleston 30-20.

Meanwhile, Taylorville 1-4 on the season. The Tornadoes lost their season opener 43-38 to Olney Richland County, then claimed their only win to this point 34-0 at Robinson.

Taylorville has since lost three straight games; 35-27 to Columbia, 14-12 at Mt. Zion, and 28-6 to Mahomet-Seymour. 

Baron Odam is the Taylorville quarterback, while Odam and Owen Mateer share running back duties for the Tornadoes.

Weldon Dunston is the Hearts leading running back, having run for 15 touchdowns and rushing for 150 to 200 yards each game.

The Hearts got some votes in the Class 4A football poll this week.

Here are the Week 6 matchups:

EFFINGHAM ______________ at TAYLORVILLE _______________

CHARLESTON ____________ at MATTOON ______________ (at EIU)

MAHOMET-SEYMOUR ___________ at MT. ZION ____________

Cumberland ________________ at Arcola ______________

Paris _________________ at Newton ______________

Casey-Westfield ___________ at Marshall ____________

Olney Richland County __________ at Mt. Carmel ______________

Robinson __________ at Lawrenceville ____________

Breese Mater Dei ________ at Alton Marquette ____________

Centralia _____________ at Marion ______________

Flora ___________ at Fairfield ___________