FOOTBALL: Team effort sparks big win for DHS
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Indians debuted their new artificial surface at Van Metre Field in grand fashion this past Friday night, claiming a tough 25-15 battle with Herrin that left both teams sitting at 2-1 on the season.
"I'm very proud of our club, they performed well tonight, but they've been focused every day in practice too," said Indians' head coach Al Martin. "They focused all week, they had a good week of practice, and that's what it takes, the preparation is the big key and they prepared hard all week. I'm really happy."
The win is the third in a row for the Indians over the Tigers, following three straight losses to Herrin and DHS alum Jason Karnes from 2006-2008.
"Overall I thought we played well at times, but in the fourth quarter the effort wasn't there," said Karnes, head coach of Herrin's varsity squad. "We didn't execute very well offensively tonight, our quarterback was running for his life at times. It hurts when you've got a captain and a running back go out in the first series."
Brock McGee, one of the Tigers' top running backs, left the game early in the first quarter with an injury.
After both teams went three-and-out on offense to start the game, Du Quoin ran off five-plus minutes of clock with a 72-yard drive that ended on Cayle Diggins' 4-yard touchdown run with 1:58 to go in the opening quarter.
The Tigers answered right back, going 52 yards in 1:37 and scoring on Toby Coffey's 23-yard run that gave Herrin a 7-6 lead after the extra point.
Brandon Williams' pounded up the middle for a 1-yard touchdown in the second quarter to put Du Quoin up 12-7 at the half, then on the Tigers' first possession of the third quarter, the Indians' defense came up with a stop in a first-and-goal from the five situation for Herrin.
The Tigers had a chance for good field position near the end of the quarter, but ran into punter for a 15-yard penalty to keep an Indians' drive alive. Later in that same series, Sam Gossett connected with Daulton Donoghue for a 19-yard touchdown reception and an 18-7 advantage.
"I've said all week, 'guys, I've played in the system, played for coach Martin, if you make a mistake he's going to cash in," Karnes said.
Coffey would score a second time with 6:30 left in the game, but Diggins added a 28-yard TD with 1:20 to go for the dagger.
"We executed some things by a lot of different people," Martin said. "There were some key third downs and long yardage, maybe third-and-four or third-and-five, we were able to pick up some big plays there."
Williams (19 carries, 74 yards) and Diggins (12-70) led the Indians' rushing attack that totaled 204 yards in the ball game. Gossett was 6-for-7 passing with Diggins (3-41), Donoghue (1-19), Jonathan Boss (1-9) and Matthew Galik (1-6) hauling in catches.
The Indians out-gained Herrin 279 yards to 209 and achieved 22 first downs to the Tigers' 13.
"You want to come back, that was a tough loss (last week at Harrisburg), we wanted to rebound from that," Martin said. "We did, its a big win for us to beat a quality club like Herrin."
Du Quoin (2-1) hosts Anna-Jonesboro (3-0) in week four as conference play begins in the Southern Illinois River-to-River Mississippi Division.
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