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| SportsSaturday, October 21, 2006 7:55 PM CDT |
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GCMS Heart of Illinois champs
GIBSON CITY -- The celebratory singing of the school song was a bit off key. No one seemed to mind. Nailing down the inaugural Heart of Illinois Conference championship was sweet music Friday night for Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley High School’s football team and its revved-up fans. Jamie Sexton recovered two fumbles, set up a touchdown with a long pass reception and ran for another TD as GCMS downed turnover-plagued Flanagan-Woodland, 28-0, in a showdown for the league title. “Being the first HOIC champs is a great feeling,” said Sexton, a senior running back/linebacker. “Every week is a great test. We have a bunch of good teams in this conference.” Class 2A No. 9 state-ranked GCMS (8-1, 7-1) proved to be the best, seizing the momentum with an early spark from Sexton and never letting it go. With Flanagan-Woodland (7-2, 6-2) driving into GCMS territory, Sexton recovered a fumble on the GCMS 38-yard line. On the next play, he hauled in a pass from Wade McGuire and raced to the Flanagan-Woodland 13 for a 49-yard gain. It led to a 6-yard touchdown run by fullback Casey Cline. Sexton then caught a two-point conversion pass from Jonathan Carpenter on a faked extra-point kick, making it 8-0 with 2 minutes, 35 seconds left in the first quarter. “It was a huge momentum swing when we got that fumble (recovery) and that long pass play,” Sexton said. “Once you make that first play, everybody settles down and they’re ready to go.” Sexton recovered another Flanagan-Woodland fumble on the next possession. Carpenter and Brenton Fairchild intercepted passes later in the half, helping GCMS take a 15-0 halftime lead. A 3-yard pass from McGuire to Cline with 14.7 seconds left before intermission, followed by Cody Birky’s extra-point kick, provided the cushion. Birky added an interception in the second half, while Sexton ran for 85 of his game-high 103 yards. Included was a 32-yard touchdown run in the third quarter for a 21-0 lead. He upped his season rushing total to 1,148 yards, breaking the school record. “He had a heck of a game,” GCMS coach Mike Allen said. “The whole defense had a heck of a game, and Jamie was able to get loose (on offense) in the second half. “It (the HOI title) is a very special feeling. We’re very honored, because it’s an incredible conference.” Sexton had three receptions for 51 yards, while Cline added three catches for 40 yards and rushed for 30 yards. Cline said the early turnover and touchdown was key, saying, “Any time you get a big play like that in the first quarter, it gets the offense going. It also puts it in the defense’s mind that, ‘Hey, we can stop these guys.’ ” GCMS held Flanagan-Woodland to 164 yards, including 83 yards on 25 carries by star running back Brent Smith. GCMS had 345 yards of offense, with 202 of its 247 rushing yards coming in the second half. “We’ve relied heavily on our running game this year, but we felt we could pass on them and we were able to early,” Allen said. “They took that away later and that opened up the running game.” Flanagan-Woodland coach Ted O’Boyle said GCMS’ first-quarter passing put his team on its heels. “There were some pass plays in the first half that hurt us and got the momentum going in their direction. We could never seem to get it back,” O’Boyle said. “That’s the name of this game. When you’re playing for the conference championship, you can’t make little mistakes. We did and they didn’t. “They put us in positions that we’re not usually in. We were in some throwing downs that we don’t like to be in. Give them all the credit on defense. They got after us pretty good.” More photos To see additional photos from this game click here. Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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GCMS Falcon Fan wrote on Oct 21, 2006 8:48 PM:
HA HA HA wrote on Oct 21, 2006 12:27 PM:
To impressed wrote on Oct 21, 2006 10:01 AM:
impressed FWC fan wrote on Oct 21, 2006 9:28 AM:
hmmm wrote on Oct 21, 2006 8:32 AM:
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