Indians cruise to 53-12 win over Massac County

DU QUOIN -- Seven different players scored touchdowns as the Du Quoin High School football team rolled to a 53-12 win over Massac County in the season opener Friday night at Van Metre Field.
The Indians kicked off to the Patriots and forced a punt, then overcame some clunkiness aided by a bizarre barrage of penalty flags to get rolling.
Du Quoin scored four touchdowns before the first quarter ended with running back Shamar Adams (1 yard), quarterback Josh Heape (10 yards), junior Kadin Mays (46 yards) and junior Dasani Edward (27 yards) all reaching the east end zone.
"I liked our offensive tempo except for the one drive with all the flags," said Du Quoin coach A.J. Hill. "For the first time with live reps in a game, I thought we did a good job with it. There were a couple series where we played pretty fast. We've got a fast team and can be explosive. So I liked a lot of that."
Adams and Heape both punched theirs in after bruising runs from senior Westly Milam, who later scored two touchdowns of his own. Mays scored after Garrett Burke recovered a fumble and Edward scored after a botched punt snap led to deep field position.
Edward's run was particularly memorable as he cut back, stopped and started and left several defenders on the turf -- a few also were taken out by big Du Quoin blocks -- and had the crowd roaring.
Hill was asked to give his review of Edward's run, a touchdown that finished off the first-quarter clock.
"Getting older now, I didn't even know if he would know who Reggie Bush is," Hill said. "Obviously he stopped on the sideline. He did actually know who he was so that mean's he's a football fan. But he's so controlled and an explosive kid even though he's not very big. That's what we expect out of him. He's an exciting player. We have to keep finding ways to get him touches."
The Indians took a 27-0 lead into the second quarter and got the ball back when Adams leapt for an acrobatic interception over the middle. That led to Milam scoring a 35-yard touchdown.
Adams took in his second score with 8:30 left in the half and Alec Caldwell's kick made it 40-0, leading fans to believe the second half would be under a continuous clock.
But the Patriots scored with 1:50 left on a 7-yard run by Blake Baird to make the second half more interesting.
Milam scored from 21 yards to officially get the running clock rolling at the 10:26 mark of the third. Lane Bauman, a sophomore, also scored for the Indians in the second half.
With no fumbles or interceptions, all that offensive firepower and holding Massac to just 10 first downs -- four in the first half -- and forcing five turnovers, it would seem the Indians had a near-perfect night.
But the penalties reached a dozen for 95 yards, which was thick in Hill's mind after the contest.
"The first game, you feel good about winning the way that we did, but usually the first game there are some ups and downs and mistakes made," Hill said. "There are a lot of new faces out there and they're in new positions and haven't had a ton of game experience at those positions. So it was pretty sloppy and if we want to take the next step and keep getting better, we have to clean those little things up and can't have that many yellow flags on the field."
Milam finished with six carries for 68 yards, Adams had six carries for 32 yards and Heape rushed six times for 52 yards while also going 6-for-12 passing for 63 yards.
Alex Zimmerman showed his talents at quarterback in the second half and Brian Winters gained some yardage with more coming from Mays, who had four total carries for 65 yards.
Massac County did enough to give the Indians practice points before heading into Week 2's home game against Harrisburg, which will be angry after losing to Mt. Carmel.
"It feels good to get a win," Hill said, "but we'll have a lot to teach from this film."