CHAMPAIGN — Just hours prior to their game against Centennial on Friday, Danville junior Amillian Beasley talked with Vikings coach Marcus Forrest in his classroom while reviewing a little film.
Beasley admitted to Forrest that he was “scared to death” during their 40-7 loss at Bloomington on Aug. 29, his first varsity football experience, but added that he feels “a lot more confident now.”
It showed on the first drive against the Chargers at Tommy Stewart Field, as Beasley intercepted a tipped pass from Centennial quarterback Ty Hunt and returned it about 40 yards to the end zone to give Danville a 7-0 lead before its offense even took the field.
“Plays like that build the confidence of the team, build up the energy and get us going,” Forrest said. “As much as I love to score points, I love it more when our defense is flying around because they’re the core of everything we do.”
After that score, Centennial coach Kyle Jackson turned to his team and had a simple message.
“It’s our turn,” he said. “Time to go get it.”
Message received. The Chargers didn’t give up another point the rest of the night in the Big 12 Conference game, and they went on to earn a 14-7 win, their third straight victory.
“We talked all week about not getting complacent because we had a big win last week,” Jackson said. “We’ve got to take it one week at a time and can’t underestimate anybody, and I don’t know that we did a great job of that (Friday night). I felt we didn’t play terribly well. We came out on top, but we still need to get better.”
The one area where Centennial (3-1, 3-1 Big 12) did step up was on the defensive side of the ball. Following a 42-0 season-opening home loss to Peoria, that group has been locked in, allowing a total of six points in the last three weeks. In Friday’s win, Cameryn Gould and A.J. Wilson both came away with interceptions, and the defense as a whole rarely allowed Danville (1-3, 1-3) to move the ball with any kind of efficiency.
“We love each other, and we love defense,” Centennial lineman Jakari Myles said. “No matter who’s playing, there isn’t anybody on defense who doesn’t love the game, love to play and love to hit. We had a great atmosphere, and we were ready to have a great game.”
The defensive effort made it so the Chargers offense didn’t have to work as hard to secure the win. Centennial got on the board early in the second quarter on a 4-yard touchdown run by Hunt, which was set up by a near-30-yard rush by Jayshawn Harris. Hunt then connected with Elie Duma for a two-point conversion to put the Chargers up 8-7.
While that’s ultimately all they needed to stay ahead, they added one more score with just under two minutes left before halftime. A blown coverage by the Vikings led to Hunt finding a wide-open Sherrod Clark for a 55-yard touchdown down the left sideline, which wound up being the final score of the game.
The Chargers have now won a pair of grind-it-out style of games this season, the first an 8-6 win against Champaign Central on Sept. 5. They didn’t feel like they played to their ability in either game, but they still found themselves ahead on the scoreboard when the clock hit zeros. Winning close matchups like that is imperative, especially with Centennial trying to return to the Class 6A playoffs after missing out by one win a year ago.
“It’s huge,” Jackson said. “If you can keep finding a way to win, you keep learning how to do that more and more. We have the mindset that no matter what position we’re in, we can get out of it if we play together and do our jobs.”
Before Friday’s one-score loss, Danville beat Urbana in another low-scoring game 12-7 on Sept. 5 and then had to rebound this week after a 49-6 loss at Normal West last Friday night. The Vikings are trying to get back to the playoffs after missing out in 2024, but they’ll need to start stacking wins sooner rather than later. All that said, Forrest and his team can take positives away from Friday night’s performance.
“It helps tremendously,” Forrest said. “We told a lot of them before the season started ‘Y’all are in the fire, and we’re not pulling you out.’ You learn, grow and get molded in the fire, kind of like glass. Every week, we’re learning how to step up and make plays. Going through the fire and grinding it out is a lot better than being in total blowouts, and it builds that mental fortitude we need.”
Danville is a young, inexperienced team this year. Only a small handful of seniors get regular playing time, and a couple of them have little to no prior football experience. Eight of the Vikings’ defensive starters are sophomores, including all three linebackers, and four of their five starting offensive linemen are sophomores.
Forrest said it’s “almost like a JV team,” and he joked that it felt like he did much more therapy than coaching during Week 1 to help his players get used to varsity football. He’s seen vast improvement from then to Friday, and he’s confident that will continue as the season progresses.
“It’s a learning experience, and they’re growing,” Forrest said. “The fact that I see them hurt, it upsets me because I don’t want to see them hurting, but I’m happy because that means they care. The more they care, the more they’re going to be able to see the mistakes they made and improve. I told them, ‘I’m proud of all of you. You played hard, and you played together.’ It wasn’t the outcome we wanted, but it was a lot closer than it could have been. As long as we continue to build on that, we’re going to give ourselves a chance in every game we play.”