Win at Calhoun guarantees home playoff game

Mon, 10/20/2014 - 8:03pm — Diane Dyer

With the weather finally ideal for Friday night lights, the Butler County Bears went on the road to face a much improved McLean County team, who were also fighting for playoff ramifications. The Bears would dominate with offensive precision early, but hiccup in the middle.
However, BC would finish strong, knocking off the Cougars, 28-16. The victory improved the Bears to an overall record of 5-3 and 3-1 in the district. It also locked up a first-round playoff game in Morgantown in the first round of 2A playoffs.

On the Cougars second play, linebacker Dillon Brosnan put a helmet on the football to force a fumble, which John Payton eventually recovered and set up excellent field position. Caleb Deweese kept it alive when he dove for it to preserve a Cougar from falling on it.
After a Rex Henderson run and three completed passes to Drake Embry, Kory Johnson, and Blake Graham had the Bears on the scoreboard just like that. “We were focused this week in practice and it showed in our execution early in the game,” Coach Emmick emphasized.
“Our receivers have been waiting to break out and it showed in the way we caught the ball. We had a ton of receivers catch the football and that really helped to spread Mclean's defense horizontally and vertically.”

McLean failed to sustain a drive with a three and out; but, their punt pinned the Bears deep inside the ten.
Faced with a long third down attempt, Henderson hit Embry, who made a nice cutback move to leave a Cougar planted, picking up 30 yards and a first down.
Graham exhibited his open field moves by zig-zagging behind what looked like a road grader of an offensive line on a wide receiver screen that picked up 20 more yards.
“Our linemen are athletic and love to run. There is nothing better than getting downfield and getting matched up to block a DB,” smirked Emmick. “Our line takes pride in blocking to the whistle and have fun getting downfield to make the extra block.”

Not only does the line take pride in blocking. Coach Emmick praised senior Kory Johnson immensely for his effort.
“Kory had a couple of the best blocks of the season on catches by both Drake Embry and Blake Graham. His effort to sprint ahead of them and make key blocks set up both of their big plays. He deserves a lot of credit for their success because of the effort he gave to block for his fellow receiver,”
Henderson then found Johnson and Payton on pass plays. Payton eventually hauled in a pass out of the backfield which put the Bears up two scores in only seven minutes of action.

McLean County outscored the Bears over the next 28 minutes of the game, taking a 16-14 advantage for a few seconds…A mere blink of the eye…Actually, it was Drake Embry getting loose, once again, this time down the sideline. Juke, miss, miss, and gone, 64 yards.
“We had a few series where we tried to run before we caught the ball and that led to some drops that hurt our drives,” Emmick recollected. This was not one of them.
Kory Johnson caught the conversion rollout pass from Henderson and the Bears clung to a 22-16 margin with just under three minutes left in the third quarter.
Throughout the remainder of the game, Coach Emmick’s defense played disciplined. They allowed the Cougars’ leading rusher, Austin Gross, pick up his yardage, but deprived him of the end zone.
On his best chance of the night, in an attempt to tie the game, Gross, who rushed for 154 yards, took a Jake Martin helmet and coughed up the ball. Martin’s determination to get to the football and recover before going out of bounds was even more impressive.
“Our defense has forced turnovers all year long. Turnovers are key in big football games,” Emmick stressed.
“Brosnan and Martin both forced fumbles in crucial situations because they made the effort play. When you are giving 100% effort, you have the opportunity to make big plays and our defense is doing just that.”

Henderson, who had arguably one his best night on the gridiron in this game, put the dagger in the hearts of Cougar fans. He rolled right with all kinds of time, and went deep over the middle of the field to find Graham for his fourth touchdown pass of the night.
Graham, who along with Embry went for over the century mark, finished the play with excitement. He stiff-armed a defender and outran another for his second receiving touchdown.

“Our guys did a great job bouncing back, our defense stood strong, and we got things rolling again later in the game,” Emmick complimented.
The Bears will play host to the Hancock County Hornets (4-4) this Friday night and the Edmonson County (3-5) Wildcats on Halloween. The Hornets and Wildcats always play BC well, so expect the Bears preparing meticulously for both.