Trae Devlin throws for nearly 300 yards in loss to Ironmen.
By: BRAD PRICE
Fourth Quarter Media
DANVILLE — The Danville Ironmen (5-1) won a hard fought contest over the Central Columbia Blue Jays, 35-21, on Friday night.
Danville’s defense forced three interceptions off Central’s (3-3) quarterback Trae Devlin, including one interception that went for an 81-yard touchdown.
Danville’s downfield coverage blanketed receivers in the second half, forcing the Blue Jays to only complete 4 of their last 20 pass attempts of the game.
As well as good play on the defensive end, Danville also outscored the Blue Jays 21-0 in the second half. A big part of this scoring output was due to Danville running back Peyton Persing.
“Coach (Dale) Coombe came up with a good game plan with some stuff they’ve never seen before,” Persing said. “We hit them with some stuff they’ve never seen before and it worked out great.”
Persing, who had 188 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns on the day, gave a lot of credit to his sophomore quarterback KJ Riley.
“KJ is good,” Persing said. “KJ was lights out all summer and we didn’t really throw it this much to start the season. We are working on that and now throwing it well and we have the quarterback and the receivers to do it.”
Central did have some bright spots though as receiver Eli Morrison broke two tackles and scampered for an impressive 43-yard touchdown to put the Blue Jays even with the Ironmen.
“First the guy hit me and I lost balance but in my head I said, 'I’m not going down,'” Morrison said. “Then I saw the second guy and made a move and got into the end zone.”
In the first half it was a different story than the second as Central had their way through the air as Devlin also connected with tight end Jared Verse for an 88-yard touchdown.
“We weren’t expecting them to leave me alone on the safety and when we saw that, Trae called an audible and called a deep route,” Verse said. “ I was wide open and it was just a foot race at that point. From what I saw on film and from track season, I thought (Peyton) Persing was the only one on their team who could catch me so I knew I could outrun them.”
The second pitch and catch touchdown gave Central a 7-point advantage heading into the half but the second half was all Danville.
The Ironmen, who was led by assistant coach Dale Coombe after the suspension of head coach Jim Keiser, came out motivated to play hard in that half.
On the first possession for the Blue Jays, Danville’s Ian Persing intercepted Devlin and weaved to the endzone for an 81-yard touchdown to even the game at 21.
The Ironmen then struck again less than four minutes later with KJ Riley connecting with Peyton Riley for a touchdown. This came one play after Peyton Riley was hit hard by Central safety Isaac Gensemer.
Danville later added one more Peyton Persing touchdown run and Central failed to get on the board despite being able to move the ball down the field and into Danville territory three times in the fourth quarter. Morrison gave credit to Danville’s offense in that second half.
“They were finding spots on our defense and making plays,” Morrison said. “We just have to get better.”
Central 7 14 0 0 - 21
Danville 7 7 21 0 - 35
First Quarter
DA- Peyton Persing 3 run (Peyton Riley kick), 7:53
CC- Eli Morrison 43 pass from Trae Devlin (Brendan Gregory kick), 4:34
Second quarter
CC- Devlin 1 run (Gregory kick), 8:55
DA- Persing 76 pass from KJ Riley (P. Riley kick), 7:38
CC- Jared Verse 88 from Devlin (Gregory kick), 5:41
Third quarter
DA- Ian Persing 81 interception return (P. Riley kick), 8:33
DA- P.Riley 11 pass from KJ Riley (P. Riley kick), 5:34
DA- Persing 47 run (P. Riley kick), 1:09
Central Danville
First Downs: 18 16
Rushing-yds: 42-147 29-129
Passing- yds: 286 202
Comp-Att-Int 11-28-3 12-22-0
Total yds: 433 331
Fumbles-lost: 0-0 1-1
Penalties-yds: 11-78 9-95
Individual Statistics
Rushing- Central: Isaac Gensemer 23-91; Trae Devlin 14-45, TD; Jack Schechterly 3-8; Ky Seesholtz 2-3. Danville: Peyton Persing 13-109, 2 TDS; Eric Sees 5-18; Ian Persing 2-14; Shane Kozick 2-10; Jaydon Diven 1-0; Austin Millar 4-(-4); KJ Riley 2-(-18)
Passing- Central: Devlin 11-28-3 286 yds, 2 TDS. Danville: KJ Riley 12-22-0 202 yds, 2 TDS.
Receiving- Central: Jared Verse 3-136, TD; Eli Morrison 3-92, TD; Zander Bradley 4-58; Gensemer 1-0. Danville: Peyton Riley 7-78, TD; P. Persing 2-79, TD; Sees 2-30; Kozick 1-15