Schuckman: Playoff loss doesn’t change legacy of Bombers, who made Friday night football an event

MACOMB, Ill. — Emily Horrell better get used to this if she hasn’t already.

A few days before the Macomb football team played host to Murphysboro in the second round of the Class 4A playoffs, the wife of Bombers coach Tanner Horrell happened to be at a local retail store when two retirement-age women began talking about Macomb football.

It’s no different than when the coach heads to work as a physical education teacher at Edison Elementary and hears his students chattering about football.

“Our players created that,” he said.

So in the final huddle in the middle of the MHS Stadium field following Saturday’s 20-16 loss, Horrell reminded the Bombers of what they did, how they did it and the everlasting impact it will have.

“I told them to keep their heads up,” said Horrell, fighting back tears after being eliminated from the postseason for the second consecutive season by the Red Devils. “They did something to this community that hasn’t been done in a long time.”

The Bombers made football on Friday nights an event.

The perfect regular season — a 9-0 record — was only the fourth in Macomb history. The 28-14 victory over Quincy Notre Dame in last week’s first-round playoff game made this the winningest team in Macomb history. And the Bombers were 24 minutes away from getting to the state quarterfinals for the first time since 2011 and the fourth time ever.

That’s because the Bombers did things in the first half Saturday the way they have all season — with a little bit of flair and full of confidence.

A 10-yard completion from senior quarterback Jack Duncan to junior wide receiver JT Jeter on fourth and 10 going into a strong, often gusty wind led to the first score. Max Ryner’s 7-yard touchdown run followed by a two-point conversion pass led to an 8-0 lead after a game-opening drive that lasted 8 minutes, 4 seconds.

The lead doubled when Duncan connected with Langdon Allen for a 35-yard touchdown pass on fourth and 5 with 2:07 left before halftime. Ryner’s two-point conversion run made it 16-0.

The wind, however, grounded the Bombers in the second half as Duncan, who had completed 70 percent of his passes and thrown for 2,084 yards through 10 games, was limited to 109 yards on 8 of 14 attempts.

“Throwing into the wind knocked the ball down 10 yards short of the target,” Horrell said. “We had some guys open going with the wind, but the ball just sailed.”

So the Bombers stuck to the ground game, giving the ball to Ryner 33 times for 106 yards, but Macomb couldn’t sustain the kind of lengthy drives necessary to keep Murphysboro off the field the same way they did in the first half.

It allowed Devon Clemons to score on a pair of short runs to pull the Red Devils within 16-14 midway through the fourth quarter. A stop of a two-point conversion try enabled the Bombers to maintain the lead.

Then came the back-breaking blow.

With 1:48 to play in regulation, Murphysboro used a Statue of Liberty-esque play to take the lead. With the entire team running toward the Macomb sideline, Clemons stood stoic in the middle of the field before quarterback Drew Caldwell stuffed the ball into his belly before running against the grain to the open side of the field and scoring on a 55-yard run.

Macomb hurriedly got the ball into Murphysboro territory, but the miracle finish wasn’t meant to be.

It meant Horrell and the coaching staff had to meet with the Bombers in the center of the field and give the speech no coach truly is ever prepared to give, not when the heart and soul of your program has tears streaming through their eye black and rolling down their face.

“You look forward to going and seeing those guys every day,” Horrell said. “And that comes to a sudden stop.”

That was inevitable, but the impact the Bombers had on this season and this community carries forward. It will be a legacy they can cherish every day.