Duke, Mustangs recover from miscues to make tide-turning plays late in regulation

MENDON, Ill. — Ryle Duke pulled no punches during a post-game assessment of his performance.

“I knew I had to recover from my mistakes,” said Duke, the Unity-Payson football team’s 6-foot-1, 180-pound junior quarterback.

And, boy, did he.

Duke threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Cody Schaffer, which following a two-point conversion run by Bryan Dieker, wound up providing Unity with a 34-26 victory Friday night over Brown County in a crucial Western Illinois Valley Conference North Division showdown.

Duke, whose touchdown throw came with 2 minutes, 19 seconds to play, sealed the victory by intercepting a pass on defense that quelled a last-gasp Brown County bid to rally. Duke’s interception came near midfield with 1:12 remaining and allowed Unity to run out the clock.

Duke had struggled with inconsistent play through much of the first 3 1/2 quarters, throwing three interceptions and fumbling.

“But my teammates kept me in it,” Duke said. “We’ve been down before, but we just don’t give up — it’s not in our vocabulary.”

Unity’s victory denied Brown County, which was beset by a number of key injuries prior to and during Friday night’s game, a share of the WIVC North Division title. Central (6-1) pounded Beardstown 60-28, to win the WIVC North outright with a 4-1 league mark, a game ahead of Unity (5-2, 3-2 WIVC North), Brown County (5-2, 3-2) and Beardstown (3-4, 3-2).

While the final three quarters provided a back-and-forth theater of entertainment, Brown County appeared to have been on the verge of a blowout during the first 10 minutes of the game. The Hornets built a quick 14-0 margin, thanks to a 42-yard scoring pass from Tate Fullerton to Angel Duarte and a 1-yard touchdown burst from Ezra Keokham.

“We didn’t panic, our kids did not panic,” said Unity coach Matt Woodworth, whose team had fallen behind by large margins early in several other key games. “Our kids seem to have the mentality that they can always come back. I think when you fall behind early like we did, I think the defense is actually under the most pressure. It has to stop the bleeding so the offense can chip away at the lead … but I did grow a couple of more gray hairs tonight.”

Unity pulled within 14-12 by halftime on a 10-yard scoring run by Cecil Hunt and a 24-yard touchdown pass from Duke to Bryan Dieker.

The two clubs traded momentum swings during much of the third period. Brown County’s Ethan Lehne returned an interception 32 yards for a score, while Hunt rumbled 39 yards for a touchdown and Dieker bulled into the end zone from a yard away to give Unity a 26-20 edge heading to the fourth quarter.

Brown County eventually tied the score when Cole Behymer hauled in a 39-yard touchdown pass from Brody Woodward with 3:11 to play, setting the stage for Dyke and Shaffer’s late heroics.

“I think there was a lot of frustration when we gave up that late TD, but we knew we had three minutes left,’ Woodworth said.

Duke’s game-winning touchdown throw came on a rather awkward-looking roll to the left, culminating with the pass toward the goal line.

“It was not a broken play,” Woodworth said. “It was designed to be a rollout.”

Woodworth admitted, however, it may have appeared Duke was “floating a pass to nowhere.”

But there was definitely a method to the perceived madness.

“Shaffer’s been my go-to guy,” said Duke, who had his eyes on Shaffer from the beginning.

Shaffer caught three balls for 64 yards. Duke ended 12 of 24 for 112 yards, which moved him to 922 yards for the season and well within striking distance of a fifth 1,000-yard season for a Unity quarterback since 2015. Hunt ran for 86 yards on just eight carries and how has 752 yards and a healthy 10.7 rushing average.

Keokham led Brown County with 63 yards on the ground. Brown County was forced to run the ball most of the night, due to injuries to its top two quarterbacks. Fullerton and Duarte both went down during the game, forcing Woodford behind center.

“(This was) Brody’s first experience at quarterback,” Brown County coach Tom Little said. “He did a good job.”

Woodward was 3 for 6 for 17 yards.

“We were scrambling,” Little said. “We lost quite a few guys to injuries. Our kids deserve a lot of credit … but this was a fun game, it just didn’t go our way.”