Coal City – In a game that was a potential state championship matchup, the words of Independence head coach John H. Lilly cut through the sideline of a packed house.
“That’s a championship defensive effort!”
The praise came in response to Bluefield’s third empty red zone trip of the night with each one ultimately mattering as the Class AA No. 1-rated Patriots rolled to a 31-10 victory over No. 3 Bluefield Friday night in Coal City.
It was an old-school effort from the Red and Blue Wrecking Crew which leaned on its defense to hold the Beavers in check and the rushing attack of Sylas Nelson, who rushed for 214 yards and three touchdowns touchdowns, in the victory.
A pair of Independence fumbles in the third quarter set the Beavers up in the red zone, but they mustered just a field goal against a stout Independence front.
“We knew they were going to get big plays,” Lilly said. “No matter how well we try to defend they’ve got such a dynamic passing game and big-play guys on the outside. We’re not built that way. We’re built a little different. So we knew once we got in there we’d have to buckle down and what helped us is we eliminated room to throw the ball.
“It was just something we kind of worked on a little bit, even in the summer. When you can have three red zone stops, maybe even four, against. really good team, you earned a win.”
To Lilly’s point, the assessment of Bluefield’s passing attack and its ability to move the ball between the 20s proved true as the Beavers went a combined 5-of-10 on third and fourth down in the first half. They convertted on plays of seven, 11, 15, 35 and 35 yards to keep drives alive but the windows and running lanes were nonexistent when the field shrunk.
“It hurt us,” Bluefield head coach Fred Simon said. “They’re good on that defensive line. We couldn’t move them. We’ve got to figure out a way to run it.”
The ability to ignite the ground game was further complicated when Bluefield’s leading rusher Willis Wilson was injured on the second play of the second quarter while playing defense. Simon confirmed that he suffered a leg injury that will likely end his season.
“He’s out. He broke his leg,” Simon said. “It wasn’t a legal block. The guy kind of whipped into it and hit him. He didn’t block him. I don’t think he meant it but it wasn’t a legal type block.”
Wilson’s absence proved vital for Bluefield’s run game which accumulated just 59 yards on 27 attempts (2.1 yards per carry) with the sophomore accounting for 29 of those yards before his exit.
Independence’s ground game took little time to get rolling and only slowed when the Patriots veered away from it after Bluefield started loading the box.
Nelson struck twice within the first five minutes, scoring on runs of 32 and 11 yards to put the Patriots ahead 14-0. He accumulated 75 yards on six carries across those first two drives, scoring the 11-yard touchdown after recovering a fumble on an errant Bluefield snap.
“Watching the film I was looking at them and I knew they weren’t going to be able to tackle me,” Nelson said. “We have better athletes than them and we just executed.”
The Beavers responded with a 14-play 66-yard drive but saw their first empty red zone possession of the game when Jeremiah Jones, running in a wildcat formation alongside Wilson, was stopped on fourth down at the Independence 5. Eleven plays and 80 yards later Micah Cuthbert extended the lead to 17-0 with a 29-yard field goal.
But the scoring slowed for the hosts as penalties put them behind the sticks. A second-and-8 turned into a third-and-14, leading to Indy’s first punt of the game.
The Beavers capitalized when Simpson hit Simon for their lone touchdown of the night on fourth-and-18 from the Indy 35. A promising Patriot drive was again derailed by a holding penalty, essentially ending the half.
While Bluefield’s defense settled in, forcing a punt and recovering a fumble that led to a 29-yard field goal from Eli Riffe to make it 17-10, the offense continuously struggled to find pay dirt. And with its first penalty-free of turnover-free drive since the first half, the Patriots quickly pushed their lead back to double digits on the back of a 7-yard plunge from Nelson who ran four times for 36 yards on the trek.
Bluefield was given a life preserver on Independence’s next drive when a Brock Green pass attempt was ruled a lateral and recovered by the Beavers but a first-and-goal at the Indy 4 ended in a fourth down incompletion at the Indy 16, following a loss of two on a run, a touchdown negated by an illegal pick and a sack of Simpson by Alex Blankenship.
Green put the finishing touches on the night later in the final frame, diving in from a yard out with 5:08 to play.
“I tip my hat to coach Simon,” Lilly said. “The score doesn’t indicate the game. It was a really, really hard fought game between tow good teams. I think maybe we’ll see each other again. That’s our luck.”
K.J. Viars led Indy with 47 yards receiving.
Simon led all Bluefield skill players with five catches for 88 yards and a touchdown. Simpson finished 14 of 33 passing for 211 yards and a touchdown.
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