Published on September 24, 2026 10:53 pm
Last Updated on September 24, 2026 10:55 pm
Homecoming excitement will be in the air Friday night at Effingham High School as the Flaming Hearts football squad welcomes a newly minted top-ranked team to Klosterman Field for Apollo Conference competition.
Mahomet-Seymour (5-0, 2-0 Apollo) will enter Washington Savings Bank Stadium undefeated and atop the latest Associated Press Class 5A poll; previous pole-sitter Providence suffered its first loss last week and, despite still receiving a handful of first-place votes, drops to the No. 2 slot previously occupied by the Bulldogs.
EHS (1-4, 1-1 Apollo) is back home after a disappointing outcome at Taylorville last week.
That 28-7 defeat put the Hearts pretty squarely behind the 8 ball in terms of their playoff hopes; IHSA’s new expanded playoff field and Effingham’s brutally tough schedule make it inaccurate to say the squad has ventured into “must win” territory but they can certainly see it from the road.
It’ll take the Hearts’ best effort to deal effectively with a Mahomet club that most recently humbled Mt. Zion on its home field, running out to a 30-0 advantage in what ended up a 44-14 victory. The Bulldogs are averaging just under 45 points per game while surrendering just over 12. Their 33-15 season opener against Morton – which hasn’t lost since – was the only halfway close game they’ve played.
It’s possible you’ve heard of a possible teachers’ union strike looming over the Mahomet-Seymour season. That situation will not affect this matchup.
The Mahomet-Seymour Education Association – that district’s union for staff and faculty – did indeed vote to authorize a strike last week, but a mandatory 10-day waiting period between that authorization vote and an actual labor stoppage means the earliest a strike could go into effect is Monday, Sept. 28, and therefore could not possibly impact this week’s game with Effingham.
Effingham’s defense allowed a handful of explosive plays at Taylorville last week but still kept the team in the hunt most of the night. Unfortunately, the Hearts mustered all of four first downs on the offensive side of the ball and turned it over three times to boot.
Suffice to say, there’ll be no room for mistakes or lack of execution against a Mahomet club that hasn’t lost to Effingham since the spring 2021 COVID season (a 20-7 success for the Hearts on March 19, 2021).
Homecoming royalty will be announced during halftime festivities ahead of Saturday evening’s dance. You can check out the homecoming court here.
Elsewhere in the Apollo, Mattoon (2-3, 1-1) welcomes Taylorville (3-2, 1-1) while Charleston (0-5, 0-2) hosts Mt. Zion (3-2, 1-1).
In other parts of the area: Cumberland (2-3, 2-2 LPC) is back on the road to Arcola (1-4, 1-3) with a chance for the Pirates to even their record and stick around in the top half of the Lincoln Prairie Conference standings.
Newton (2-3, 1-2 LIC) lost a tight five-point battle at Olney a week ago and hosts Paris (4-1, 2-1) looking to snap a two-game skid. Undefeated Mt. Carmel (5-0, 3-0 LIC) got all it wanted from that Paris team last week (24-20 final) and now hosts Olney.
Breese Central (5-0, 4-0 Cahokia) holds steady at No. 4 in the Class 4A rankings with winless Wood River-East Alton hosting the Cougars. Breese Mater Dei (3-2, 1-1 MVC) looks to follow up last week’s nail-biting 28-27 win over Alton Marquette with a home game against out-of-state opponent Saxony Lutheran out of Jackson, Mississippi. Centralia (5-0, 4-0 Cahokia) blistered Columbia 56-20 last week and heads to Waterloo this week. The Orphans’ Week 8 meeting with Breese Central seems destined to decide the champion of the Cahokia Conference’s Mississippi division.