money The Heat is on: West Central wins Illinois 8-player state football championship
MONMOUTH, Ill. -- "The greatest of all times."
That was a slogan for Buffalo Wild Wings, a restaurant in Burlington where the West Central High School football team decided to chase its dream of winning a state championship.
Mission accomplished.
On a brutally cold, windy Friday night, West Central turned up the 'Heat' and held on for a 44-36 victory over Amboy in the 8-Player state championship game at April Zorn Memorial Stadium on the campus of Monmouth College.
As the Heat hoisted the first state football championship in school history, their dream had become reality.
On a cold November night, a few hot wings from Buffalo Wild Wings were not far from the players' minds, either.
"At the beginning of the season we went out for dinner and we all knew what our dream was. Tonight we made it come true," said West Central senior Landon Winters, who redeemed himself from a week ago by recovering two onside kicks. "Last game as everybody saw, I didn't have very good luck with them, so I told myself I had to deal with it and get it done."
"Just wow! The amount of work we put in to get up to this … it's just amazing. It feels amazing to end our senior year like this. Just wow!," said West Central senior Nick Woods, whose pressure on Amboy all-state quarterback Tucker Lindenmeyer led to a 60-yard pick-six by Kaiden Droste in the second quarter. "This was all of our goals. Every Thursday we would go an eat at B-Dubs before our Friday game. We'd all get together, eat some B-Dubs and have an alone time as a team."
"Every Thursday we would go to B-Dubs. We'd always go there and talk about our week, talk about past practices and past games and just have fun," West Central senior Parker Meldrum said.
"We used to go to B-Dubs every single Thursday right before our games. We'd talk. It would be a big old group meeting, basically, just as a group of guys, a group of friends," said Droste, who rushed for 179 yards and scored four touchdowns. "We decided that if this is what we are really going to do, then we were going to have to put in the work. If this wasn't going to be our goal, we weren't going to practice like champions. If we didn't want to be champions, then why practice like it? We decided this is what we were going to do, so we practiced like champions. We're going to take control of every single moment and this is what we did."
A fast start
West Central (13-0), which beat Amboy (10-2), 68-30, in the regular-season finale, looked set to sink the Clippers early.
After stopping Amboy's opening drive, the Heat needed just five plays to find the end zone. Droste broke loose on a 46-yard scoring scamper to give the Heat a quick 8-0 lead.
West Central made it 16-0 moments later after recovering Woods' onside kick. Four runs by Droste -- the last two covering 28 and 11 yards -- gave the Heat a two touchdown lead with still 4 minutes, 3 seconds left in the first quarter.
Two big defensive plays sway momentum
Leading 22-16 with just under two minutes left in the first half, the Heat made two big defensive plays to save the lead -- and the day.
After recovering an onside kick, the Clippers had the ball at the West Central 45. Lindenmeyer dropped back to pass, but was under a heavy rush from Woods. As he scrambled to his right, Lindenmeyer tried to throw back across his body to all-state end Brennan Blaine. But Droste stepped in front of the pass at the 40 and was off to the races.
Instead of possibly tying the game, Amboy found itself trailing, 28-16.
"I missed one before, straight off the front of my helmet and then the guy caught it and made an amazing play," Droste said. "I had to redeem myself. I saw my chance. I didn't know where I was going to go at first, but I saw the hole and took my opportunity. It was absolutely amazing running down. It was a huge part of the game, also. They were starting to crawl back into it a little bit. To have that right there was absolutely awesome."
On its next possession, Amboy got to the West Central 10 on a 35-yard pass from Lindenmeyer to Blaine. But on the ensuing play, Quinn Leffelman fumbled and Mason Carnes recovered at the Heat 8. West Central ran out the clock to end the half.
Clippers set sail in second half
Amboy made adjustments at halftime. Two touchdowns in the third quarter brought the Clippers within 36-30 heading into the final quarter.
"We talked about before the game that there is one team that is happy to be here and one team that wants to win," Droste said. "I'm sorry to say, but both teams wanted to win here today. That was an absolute dogfight. They are a great team."
A strong finish
Carnes capped a 50-yard, 12-play drive with a one-yard plunge to give the Heat a 44-30 lead.
Amboy countered with a 12-play, 49-yard drive to cut the Heat lead to 44-36. But the drive chewed 6:26 off the clock, and the Heat recovered the onside kick with 2:52 left.
On the final carry of his high school career, Droste gained four yards off tackle.
"That last run. We were going for a first down, so I was really fighting for it," Droste said. "But at the same time I knew I just needed to hold onto the ball. It was only second down. It wasn't needed at that moment. I knew more importantly we just needed to keep possession. Instead of one-handing it outside or doing something crazy to try to save the game, I just have to take care of the ball and do my job, and my job in that situation is to gain some yards for us and hold onto that ball."
A three-yard run by Carnes gave the Heat a first down and sealed the win.
"It was a big sigh of relief. Everything we worked for was officially accomplished. It was another check mark in the story book," Carnes said.
A win for the ages
As the final seconds wound off the clock, the celebration was on. The West Central fans stormed the field en masse, the cold night warmed by the Heat.
The dream formed on a Thursday night at Buffalo Wild Wings had become reality. It was a moment the players, the coaches, the students and the entire West Central community forever will cherish and share.
And they didn't want it to end.
"There's no words to explain it. It's awesome," Winters said.
"It feels like the community deserved this and the team deserved this," Carnes said.
"It's definitely a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It's just awesome to do this with all these people," Meldrum said. "It feels great. It's probably the best thing I have ever felt, just being with all my friends and everything, playing one last time and winning it all. It's just a great feeling."
"It's absolutely awesome," Droste said. "Standing out here, just to be on this field is absolutely amazing. To be the team that comes out on top for the first time in school history is an absolutely amazing feeling."
By the numbers
A. WC
First downs. 16. 14
Rushes-yards 44-216. 44-259
Passing yards 90. 0
Comp-Att-Int. 7-12-1. 0-0-0
Total offense. 306. 259
Fumbles-lost. 2-1. 1-0
Punts-average. .0-0. 0-0
Penalties-yards. 2-10. 2-20
3rd Down Efficiency. 6-12. 3-6
4th Down Efficiency. 5-6. 2-3
Time of possession. 29:16. 18:44
Scoring by quarters
Amboy 0 16 14 6 — 36
West Central 16 12 8 8 — 44
Scoring
WC—Kaiden Drost 46 run (Droste run)
WC—Drost 11 run (Droste run)
A—Brennan Blaine 6 pass from Tucker Lindenmeyer (Lindenmeyer run)
WC—Droste 8 run (run failed)
A—Lindenmeyer 7 run (Lindenmeyer pass to Blaine)
WC—Droste 60 int. return (run failed)
WC—Mason Carnes 1 run (Droste run)
A—Blaine 23 pass from Lindenmeyer (Landon Welchel run)
A—Quinn Leffelman 5 run (pass failed)
WC—Carnes 1 run (Droste run)
A—Welchel 7 run (run failed)
Individual statistics
RUSHING: Amboy — Welchel 16-75, Lindenmeyer 10-73, Leffelman 15-50, Blaine 3-18. West Central — Droste 18-179, Carnes 12-54, Meldrum 9-47, Team 5-(-21).
PASSING: Amboy — Lindenmeyer 7-12-1-90.
RECEIVING: Amboy — Blaine 7-90.
Matt Levins is a sports reporter for the USA Today Network in Burlington, Iowa, who has covered local sports for 32 years at The Hawk Eye. Reach him at mlevins@thehawkeye.com.
This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: West Central holds off Amboy to win first state football title for school
