Danville demolishes Centerburg, gains steam heading down stretch

DANVILLE – Midway through the first quarter of Friday night’s game between Danville and Centerburg, with the scored tied 0-0, the power went out at Tough Street Stadium.

Well, half of it did.

The two banks of stadium lights behind Centerburg’s sideline went dark suddenly after a failed third-down conversion by the Trojans deep in their own territory. Danville head coach Ed Honabarger said after the game that a fuse had blown and Athletic Director Matt Moore had to call maintenance staff to come fix the issue.

Within 15 minutes, the power came back on.

As insignificant as the occurrence may have been – it neither subdued nor sparked any sort of momentum – it was, in many ways, symbolic of what was to come.

The Blue Devils (3-5, 3-2 KMAC) would proceed to blank the Trojans (4-4, 2-3 KMAC), 42-0, shutting off Centerburg’s offensive electricity early and often. Conversely, the momentary delay was quite possibly the only thing that didn’t go according to plan for Danville on Friday night.

The Blue Devils scored in all three phases of the game – four times on offense, once on defense and once on special teams.

They were led by senior quarterback Dalton David, who threw for 264 yards and one touchdown on a rainy, cold night. He also rushed for two touchdowns, both on five-yard carries. Senior wideout Corbin Hazen led Danville with five receptions for 91 yards. Hazen also scored on a rushing touchdown (he had two carries for 66 yards), and he capped the night off with a 60-yard punt return to the house.

“We felt all three aspects – offense, defense, special teams – played well,” Honabarger said after the game. “We got scores in all three. (It’s) not very often that happens.”

The Blue Devils also held Centerburg to just 128 total yards of offense, as they keyed in on dual-threat quarterback John Sheasby, who has proven to be one of the KMAC’s shiftiest runners. Sheasby was limited to 27 yards on 17 carries, while passing 5-of-15 for 45 yards.

“We were really concerned with Centerburg’s quarterback runs coming in, they’ve been real successful with that,” Honabarger said. “And we were able to shut that down.”

Following the power outage, Danville struck first on a 30-yard touchdown carry from Hazen, who swung around the outside and blazed up the Blue Devil sideline for six points. Then, with 1:39 left until halftime, Danville scored again on a heady decision by David.

Danville took a timeout before facing a third-and-goal situation with the ball on the five-yard line. The Blue Devils came out of the huddle and lined up with an empty backfield – five receivers wide – deep in the red zone. That’s when David read the Trojan defense and made a split-second decision.

“We were going to roll him out, and he saw that they overloaded that side. It was a pre-snap read,” Honabarger said.

Given Centerburg’s defensive alignment, David chose to roll out and run it in, rather than forcing a pass into the end zone. He took it himself and beat several defenders to the pylon, putting Danville up 14-0.

“He made great decisions tonight,” Honabarger said of David. “You know, sometimes they were overloading certain sides of the field. And he made good decisions going to the opposite side of the field, where it’s an even matchup, two-on-two or three-on-three, and not where their extra defensive back was.”

At that point, however, the game was still manageable for Centerburg. The Trojans could score before halftime and be down by one touchdown, or they could hold the ball and still only be down by two scores.

Instead, what happened on Friday is what’s haunted Centerburg over and over again this season.

A sack and two incomplete passes forced the Trojans to punt quickly from their own goal line. Starting at the Centerburg 35-yard line with 52 seconds left until intermission, David took advantage of a defensive breakdown and fired a 29-yard touchdown strike to a wide open Alex Holt, making the score 21-0 at halftime.

“Just a breakdown in coverage, a communication error within the coverage that we called on that particular play. It led to their big plays,” Centerburg head coach Andy Colella said afterwards. “We knew that was going to be their thing and we had to be able to stop those plays in order to give us a chance.

“We were in the same position that we’ve been in multiple times there at the end of the first half. You go from 7-0 with three minutes left, and then by the end of the first half you’re down 21-0. So that was a backbreaker there.”

From there, the second half went smoothly for the Blue Devils. Holt picked off a Jack Gregory pass and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown to begin the third quarter.

Centerburg had its best chance to score midway through the third period, when the Trojans had the ball on Danville’s 17-yard line. The drive stalled, however, as a fourth-and-nine pass from Sheasby landed well short of the desired target, causing a turnover on downs.

David kicked off the fourth quarter with another five-yard touchdown scamper, this time diving for the pylon on third-and-goal. Hazen put the icing on the cake with a 60-yard punt return touchdown midway through the final period, as he dodged defenders and strode into the end zone untouched.

In the midst of Danville’s diverse scoring attack, the Blue Devil defense disrupted Centerburg with an all-night pass rush. Trojan quarterbacks were sacked seven times on Friday, as Danville linebacker Nathaniel Wilson registered two himself. Of Centerburg’s 40 rushing attempts, 13 went for negative yardage.

“It had a huge impact,” Colella said of Danville’s pass rush. “Obviously, (Sheasby is) a huge part of our offense, whether it was the run game or the pass game. We weren’t protecting him in the pass game, he didn’t have hardly any time to throw the ball, and obviously the run game wasn’t working either. So that makes a huge difference.”

With the win, Danville shut out Centerburg for the second straight year. The Blue Devils have outscored the Trojans 83-0 over the last two seasons.

Centerburg suffered its third loss in four games on Friday. The Trojans, who began the season 3-1, have now slipped to fifth in the KMAC. They’ll finish the season with two big ones, as they will host Northmor (8-0) and county rival Fredericktown (1-7) in weeks 9 and 10, respectively.

“You just gotta try to keep them focused,” Colella said. “Your seniors, we’ve got seven of them, and you want to try to play for them and send them out the right way these last two games here – play for pride within yourselves and within your community and in your school – and you just try to work at that.

“And the younger guys, they’ve just gotta try to keep getting better. There’s quite a few of them that are coming back, so you just try to build confidence within those guys and that way you set yourself up moving forward.”

Danville, meanwhile, has now won three straight games after starting the season 0-5. Coming into this week, the Blue Devils were rated 15th in Division VII Region 27 in the OHSAA’s computer ratings. Following Friday night’s game, Joe Eitel has the Blue Devils rated 11th in the region unofficially.

“Right now, we’ve won three in a row and the kids are confident. They’re more confident in their ability,” Honabarger said. “We’ve still got a lot of things to work on, gotta get better at stuff. But they come to work and they’re working hard. So that’s all we can ask for, to keep getting that effort from them.”

In addition to their recent success, the Blue Devils are favored in state ratings because of their strength of schedule. Their first five opponents had a combined record of 31-4 coming into Week 7. Garaway, which Danville lost to by one point in overtime in Week 3, was still undefeated.

Now, the Blue Devils are rolling. They will host Mount Gilead (0-8) next week before taking on their cross-town rival, East Knox (7-1), in a Week 10 showdown. They’ll likely need to win both of those games to sneak into the playoffs, but the Blue Devils believe they can do it. And at this point in the season, it’s that hope that’s keeping them going.

“We know what we have on the line and we just keep emphasizing that we’ve gotta stay excited. We’ve gotta work,” Hazen said. “Whether we feel like it or not, we have to come, we have to show up, and we have to work every day.”

AROUND THE KMAC

Northmor (8-0) beat Mount Gilead (0-8), 42-8. The Knights fell to third in Division VI Region 23 in Joe Eitel’s unofficial ratings.
Highland (7-1) beat Cardington-Lincoln (0-8), 41-7. The Scots fell to 10th in Division IV Region 14 in Joe Eitel’s unofficial ratings.
East Knox (7-1) beat Fredericktown (1-7), 54-7. The Bulldogs rose to 11th in Division VI Region 23 in Joe Eitel’s unofficial ratings.

Official OHSAA ratings are released every Tuesday until October 28, following Week 10, when the playoff field is announced. The top eight teams in each region will make the playoffs.

NEXT WEEK