Story by Parker Cassidy
The West Central Heat are still unbeaten and moving on to the quarterfinal round of the 8-Man football playoffs after an impressive opening-round win over Bushnell-Prairie City.
West Central improved to 10-0 with a 44-6 win over the Spartans Friday night in heavy rain and muddy conditions. The Heat defense held one of the state’s leading rushers, Jonavan Harrell, to just 45 yards rushing, a major turnaround from the teams’ first meeting in September, when West Central came away with a wild 72-64 win.
Now the Heat turn their attention to South Beloit, who enters at 7-3 after knocking off Polo 44-18 in the opening round. The Sobos are averaging more than 36 points per game, and Head Coach Jason Kirby says their playmakers make them dangerous on both sides of the ball.
“I think they play five or six guys both ways, so all those explosive guys are playing on defense as well. Defense is really what their calling card has been. I think they’ve manufactured some points off defense, and it’s going to be a stiff test for us to make sure that we can move the football as we have all year because they’re certainly good defensively.”
Kirby says ball security and winning the turnover battle will once again be important for the Heat.
West Central and the Sobos will kick things off at 7 PM Friday night in South Beloit, with the winner advancing to the 8-Man semifinals to face the winner of Meridian and Alden-Hebron, who will meet Saturday at 5 PM in Hebron.
For the full interview with Coach Kirby, go to the SPORTS PODCAST section.
