Hearts' next opponent having a special season

Dustin White

QUINCY — Quincy Notre Dame High School head football coach Bill Connell obviously has a special club.

The Raiders are 10-0 and have allowed a grand total of 32 points heading into Saturday afternoon's Class 4A playoff game with Effingham.

Connell doesn't seem interested in spending a lot of time talking up his team, however.

He's just focused on how good he thinks his second-round opponents are and how he can prepare his seventh straight playoff squad to stop them.

"(Effingham) will be the most aggressive defense we've played all year," said the Raiders' 18th-year mentor. "They've got 10 or 11 guys flying around putting helmets into people on every play. My biggest concern is getting them all blocked.

"Effingham has probably played a more competitive schedule in a tougher conference. Obviously they're a good team — you don't just wake up 9-1. That isn't luck."

The Apollo Conference didn't exactly command the highest respect this season. The bottom half of the league struggled, and the undefeated class of the league, Mount Zion, was upset in the first round.

Robinson, the Apollo's only other playoff qualifier, made its own quick exit from its first postseason appearance since 2002.

Still, the final standings of the Mid-State 6 bear out some of Connell's comments.

Quincy Notre Dame won with a 5-0 league mark, while Peoria Richwoods went 4-1 in league play and 9-1 overall. Its one loss was a 7-6 decision to the Raiders, a game that could've been a one-point decision in the other team's favor if the Knights had succeeded on a two-point conversion try with less than 90 seconds to play.

After that, only Peoria Notre Dame (5-4, 3-2) finished with a winning record, although the Irish missed the playoffs along with Peoria Woodruff (2-7, 2-3), Peoria Central (1-8, 1-4) and Peoria Manual (0-9, 0-5). Those bottom four teams were outscored nearly 2-to-1 this season, allowing an average of just under 30 points per game.

Notre Dame opened the season 3-0 with non-conference wins over Macomb, Palmyra (Mo.) and Spring Valley Hall. It also beat Canton to close the regular season and is coming off a convincing 42-0 trouncing of visiting Harrisburg in Saturday's opening round.

"We played well, but that's in the past," said Connell, who is 130-60 for his career at QND and leading a 14th playoff qualifier over that career.

"I've been at this a long time, long enough to know that game doesn't matter anymore. It's all about what you've done lately. The people of Quincy aren't sitting around talking about Harrisburg. They've got Effingham on their minds."

Even if Connell wants to play down the Mid-State 6, there's no question his team is in the midst of a special season.

"They expect to win, and they expect to dominate," said EHS coach Mike McDonald, who got a chance to see the Raiders in person as he traveled to Saturday's win over Harrisburg.

"They've got real good size on the offensive line. They're not flashy and there aren't a lot of standouts, but they do it as a unit. On film, it's hard to see any real weaknesses."

The Raiders have outscored opponents 375-32, shutting out six of them and allowing only 18 points since a 49-14 shellacking of Macomb in the final installment of their season-opening rivalry match.

"Our strength has been our defense," said Connell, who never coached a defense with five or more shutouts prior to this season.

Connell and his staff added a wrinkle to their offensive attack this season, working some spread sets into the traditional power-I approach.

The Raiders still base their game on the run, but Connell says there is more pass/run balance to his offense than usual.

"The new offense was something we started working on this summer and during camp," said Connell. "Every week, we've added a play. We still don't do anything complicated. We don't have a whole lot - it's pretty basic football."

Junior tailback Daniel Weiman (5-foot-9, 170 pounds) has become the first QND back since 1994 to put together a 1,000-yard rushing season, crossing that plateau with 175 yards in Week 8 against Peoria Notre Dame.

Weiman ran for 114 and three scores in opening-week action and scored four more times against Palmyra. Against Spring Valley Hall, he racked up a season-high 276 yards on 19 carries, including three more TDs and a school record-matching 97-yard scoring scamper.

While Weiman has been a consistent weapon for the Raiders, a number of receivers have gotten in on the action. On many occasions, five or six Quincy Notre Dame players caught passes in games.

Those passes have been delivered by two different junior quarterbacks; Kramer Barnes began the year as the starter, but sustained an elbow injury during Week 5 against Peoria Woodruff.

Luke Stamerjohn stepped in and held down the fort until Barnes' return in the regular-season finale with Canton. Stamerjohn resumed catching passes, totaling 50 yards on two catches in that ninth-week victory.

Senior wide receiver Quenton Keating (6-4, 180) and junior wideout Anthony Bruns (6-2, 172) have been familiar faces amongst the Raiders' receiving leaders, although a major advantage for QND is the fact that you can never be sure who the target is going to be.

Game time is set for 2 p.m. Saturday. Quincy Notre Dame is playing its sixth straight second-round game.

Dustin White can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 123 or dustin.white@effinghamdailynews.com.

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