News and notes from Memorial Stadium in Champaign

Illini West coach Jim Unruh teases coach Tim Lafferty during a post game press conference about smiling too much. Friday was Lafferty’s first state title in football as a coach.

One of the more amazing performances at Friday's state football games was by senior DuQuoin tight end/defensive lineman Dalton Morgan.

Morgan, a Division I recruit, was airlifted to a hospital two weeks before after suffering a torn trachea in their quarterfinal win over Decatur Saint Teresa. The injury occurred when a Decatur Saint Teresa player stepped on Morgan's neck.

He was not expected to play again this season. He was on the sidelines cheering on his temamates as they defeated Columbia in the semifinals to advance to the state title game.

“They X-rayed him and said he could play this weekend if he wanted to,” said DuQuoin coach Al Martin. “We needed him. We knew with Illini West we had to stop the run. We moved Dalton down inside to help against the run. I don't know if we could have held them the way we did without him.

“It was a big boost for our team.”

Morgan finished the game with two catches on offense and seven tackles on defense.

It's Terry Bradshaw calling

Quarterback Michael Lafferty takes the cell phone rules at Illini West seriously.

The junior saw he had a cell phone call from an unknown number and dutifully did not answer it while at school early last week. Illini West does not allow cell phones to be used during school hours.

Lafferty later found out that the call was from former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw. Former Thunder and Cyclones football coach John Earle has a connection to the former Super Bowl winner and asked him to call Lafferty.

Lafferty jokingly gave credit to Bradshaw for the game-winning pass to Jacob Schmudlach during a post game press conference.

Smiling coaches

Coaches Jim Unruh and Tim Lafferty each had extra reasons to be happy after winning their first state championship on the same staff.

Unruh's father, Paul Unruh, watched the state championship game from the press box Friday, seeing his son win his first Class 3A state title. He received plenty of family and friends during the game, including former Carthage football and girl' basketball coach Bill Lapp.

Paul watched Jim's press conference after the game as Jim reflected on joining his dad in winning 3A titles on their first try.

“My dad won a state championship in football for the first time in 3A. I get to join him today,” said Jim.

Lafferty couldn't stop smiling during the press conference, prompting Jim Unruh at one point to say, ‘Coach Lafferty, will you stop smiling.' It was Lafferty's first state title after finishing in second place in 1996 and 2000.

Everyone's a winner

Senior offensive lineman Luke Burling had an all-encompassing view on Illini West's first-ever football state championship. Burling was a long-time manager for the Carthage Blueboys football teams and attended several state championship games with the team.

The two-year-old Illini West High School is now starting to build its own tradition.

“I remember being here on the sidelines for all those years (2002-2004) and watching how disappointed guys were when they didn't win,” said Burling. “I saw how down they were after the game. We have several players and coaches who have never won one, and we have some new teachers who have never been a part of something like this. We wanted to win this for all of them.”

Air Unruh

Jacob Schmudlach's 18-yard touchdown reception continued a long line of Unruh coached teams winning big games with the pass dating to his days as the Carthage Blueboys coach.

Carthage won state titles with touchdown passes against Sterling-Newman and Galena, known as The Pass I and The Pass II.

The Chargers did not throw a pass in their second round win over Macomb or their quarterfinal win over Aledo/Westmer. They did air it out in their semifinal nail-biter against Oregon. Zack Burling's game-winning catch was near the pylon at the goal line. Schmudlach's catch in the state championship game was near the back of the end zone.

“That last play was a mirror image of the last play last week,” said quarterback Michael Lafferty.

“We ran that play before (in the game) and it was well covered,” said Schmudlach. “I got behind the guy this time and got a good pass.”

Running to glory

Fullback Stefan Flynn enjoys his action in the middle of the Illini West offense. He was quick to point to the guys up front in helping him gain 213 yards rushing.

“The o-line gets all the credit,” said Flynn. “They've done it all season. They work as hard as anyone I've ever seen.”

DuQuoin coach Al Martin agreed.

“They got on the edge a couple of times that hurt us,” said Martin. “When they get out there and pull those guards, it's tough to stop. They did some trapping and the fullback worked inside. They made a number of big plays with basic football.”

“We came out with a game plan and were able to do that. We imposed our will,” said senior tackle Ross Hutson.

Surviving a nightmare

Defensive coordinator Lyle Klein had a mild day Friday compared to what he went through in the semifinal win over Oregon last week.

The Hawks ran for 366 yards against the Chargers' defense, and nothing the team did seemed to help, including running goal line packages in place of the regular plays. Players were sent in to play defense who had not played there all season.

“I didn't want to wake up at 3 a.m. and think ‘I should have done this or I should have done that,'” said Klein last week. “I wanted to do everything we could to win this game. These kids have worked too hard for us not to.”

The defense made a key stop late in the fourth quarter to help defeat Oregon.

This week, Klein's defense allowed 236 total yards in Friday's win over DuQuoin.