By Fred Kroner
Villa Grove/Heritage scored the season’s first touchdown in its home-opener against Cerro Gordo/Bement on Friday (March 19), but the visiting Broncos recovered and registered a 33-14 triumph in a Lincoln Prairie Conference game.
On the season’s first possession, VG/Heritage reached the end zone with 9 minutes and 34 seconds left in the opening period on a 34-yard pass from Blake Smith to Carson Howard.
Smith completed 12 of 27 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns.
He hooked up with Matt Gulick on a 16-yard scoring play with 7:24 left in the fourth quarter. Gulick’s score was the final one in the game.
That TD was followed by a two-point conversion by Howard.
Logan Nohren caught four passes for 65 yards. Howard also had four receptions and turned them into gains of 63 yards. Gulick caught two passes for 22 yards.
Liam Barr and Elijah Kiesel each had one reception. Barr’s was for six yards and Kiesel’s was for two yards.
The Blue Devils finished with four net yards rushing on 19 attempts.
The team-leader was Parker Stevens with 14 yards on five carries. Smith had nine yards on eight attempts.
Howard finished with 108 all-purpose yards after returning three kickoffs for 45 yards.
Coach Heath Wilson had only to look around the halls during the school day to see what his squad members thought about playing a football game.
“The kids wore their jerseys at school and were excited,” Wilson said. “It was awesome.”
The calendar showed it was March, but for Wilson it felt more like early November.
“It was brisk out and felt like playoff weather,” he said. “The atmosphere was great.”
The game answered one question for the coach.
“I always wondered what spring football was about,” Wilson said.
VG/Heritage started strong despite being short-handed. Seventeen squad members were sidelined, including nine who were projected as defensive starters.
“We still fielded a team,” Wilson said. “We wanted the kids to play, no matter what.
“Our boys played really well.”
Cerro Gordo/Bement returns a strong nucleus from its 2019 team.
The Blue Devils had to make some adjustments in order to cover all of the positions.
“We took two kids who play skill positions and put them on the offensive line (sophomores Sam Bender and Carson Block),” Wilson said. “They had never played the line before.”
Wilson saw no reason to immediately remove them.
“We’ll keep them on the line and see how they progress,” he said. “I told them to keep both jerseys.”
Wilson expects to be “almost at full strength” for its Week 2 game at Argenta-Oreana.
Regardless of how playing time goes the remainder of the season, the opener will be beneficial.
“Young kids who will be key contributors in their junior and senior seasons got a lot of varsity experience,” Wilson said.
Defensive leaders were Nohren with 11 tackles, Howard, Liam Barr and Keaton Junglas with nine stops apiece and Stevens with seven tackles.
Kiesel had five tackles, Gulick had four and Cory Stewart also wound up with four tackles.
Nohren was penciled in as a defensive end this season, but played middle linebacker in the first game.
“He was flying to the ball,” Wilson said.
