FOOTBALL: Two-pointer in OT gives Indians a win over Lions
Everything came down to a two-point conversion at Carterville on Friday night for the Indians and Lions, as Du Quoin head coach A.J. Hill elected to go for the win on the road in overtime, dialing up a play for running back Zayne Fornear who dove into the end zone to send DHS to a 30-29 victory.
Fornear made plays all night long, scoring all four of Du Quoin's touchdowns as part of his 32-carry, 138-yard performance as the Indians' lead tailback. The Indians trailed four times in the game, but continued their recent trend of battling back from adversity, this time finishing the job to even their record at 2-2 overall one week into conference play.
The Lions scored in OT on a 10-yard pass from Blake Hicks to Justin Parson-Nalley, then kicked the extra point to go up seven. The move was a little surprising to Hill, who didn't think twice about going for two after Fornear's fourth touchdown of the night on a 10-yard run.
"They probably just assumed we would kick the extra point," Hill said. "We had some things we didn't like about our extra point attempt, so when it got time and we scored with the game on the line, there were a combination of things that went into it. It was a pretty easy decision to go for two though. I felt like we had a good play called, and I felt like our kids were getting off the ball and we were wearing them down just a little bit up front. It wasn't a complete no-brainer, we analyzed it a little bit, but for the most part it was an easy decision."
A penalty on the Lions for too many men on the field made the two-point try a little easier for the Indians. In total, Carterville was flagged ten times for 67 total yards.
The Lions got on the board first with an 83-yard touchdown run by Drew Moore with 8:01 to go in the opening quarter. But after that run, Du Quoin's run defense gave up only 73 yards on the ground the rest of the game, a number Hill said he's pleased with.
"Our defense continues to get better against the run," said Hill. "We've still got room for improvement. I think their game plan coming in was that they might not be able to run it on us, they kind of gave us some fits passing the ball."
And pass they did. Hicks threw the ball 30 times, completing 14 of those tosses for 151 yards and one interception, by DHS's Cole Hopkins. After the Indians tied it up at 8-8 late in the first quarter on a 2-yard run by Fornear - set up by a 33-yard pass from Caleb Vogel to Braden Tuthill - the Lions struck back with an 18-yard TD pass from Hicks to Parson-Nalley just before the half. The play came on a fourth-and-four with thirty seconds remaining in the second quarter.
After the break, Fornear scored from 14 yards out midway through the third quarter to give the Indians a chance to tie with an extra point, but the kick was blocked and the Lions maintained a 15-14 edge.
After Vogel was picked off by Austin Swalls, Hicks found the end zone from a yard out just before the end of the third to make it 22-14.
Vogel ran for a 21 yard gain to set up Fornear's third score, a 1-yard run with 6:49 to play in the game that ultimately forced overtime. Vogel connected with tight end Devin Jones for the two-pointer to knot the score at 22-apiece.
"Zayne did a great job Friday," Hill said. "Carterville had a good game plan for him and he kind of had to earn it. They bottled him up a little bit. We weren't able to get him out in the open as much as we normally do. He wasn't able to get free as much as he's capable of. He did a good job of getting what he could get. Friday night we asked Zayne to be a workhorse for us and he did a great job of doing it."
Fornear's total of 32 carries was a bit alarming to Hill and his staff, however. The coach said he'd like to get that number down to avoid wear and tear on his leading rusher.
"We don't want to give him 32 carries every game, we'd like to limit that a little bit," Hill said. "The way of the flow of the game was going, it was kind of a slug fest. They were putting a ton of guys in the box, and we just had to grind it out a few yards at a time. Sometimes that's what you've got to do, but definitely we've got to monitor his carries. We want to give him the ball a lot because he's our most dynamic player, but 32 is in that range where we might want to start spreading the wealth around a little bit."
Vogel (9 rushes, 51 yards) and Anthony Spiller (1-1) were the only other Indians to run the ball on Friday. Vogel was 9-for-18 passing for 94 yards and was picked off twice. His targets included Tuthill (3 catches, 60 yards), Jones (2-12), Hopkins (2-12), Bryce Clarry (1-5) and Brock Bullar (1-5).
The Indians (2-2, 1-0) have their homecoming game this coming Friday night when they host the Pinckneyville Panthers (3-1, 0-1). Carterville (1-3, 0-1) is at Anna-Jonesboro (2-2, 0-1).