Published on September 4, 2025 9:31 am
Last Updated on September 5, 2025 6:32 am
BY DUSTIN WHITE
Effingham High School will look for its first football victory of the season on the road this week as the Flaming Hearts head to Mt. Carmel Friday for a Week 2 non-conference clash with the Golden Aces.
It will be Effingham’s second year in a row playing Week 2 at Mt. Carmel’s infamous “Snake Pit” in a bit of a scheduling quirk; it was reportedly agreed upon for the teams to flip-flop locations when they renewed their home-and-home agreement for the next two years because otherwise the Aces would have just three home dates on the 2025 schedule.
Last year, EHS went into the Snake Pit and emerged a 26-22 victor against a Mt. Carmel club featuring fewer than a half-dozen seniors on the roster. That means the perennially tough Golden Aces will have a ton of returning varsity experience this time around from a club that rebounded from an 0-2 start to finish the regular season 5-4 before bowing out in the opening round of the Class 3A playoffs.
Mt. Carmel is looking to avoid a second straight 0-2 start after going to DuQuoin for Week 1 and leaving town with a 48-19 loss, a similar-looking score to the 42-7 tally visiting Breese Central hung on Effingham on Senior Night at Klosterman Field.
Notably, junior Shain Meador was the starting quarterback for Mt. Carmel in last year’s game with Effingham but has since given way to sophomore River Deisher, who completed 12 of 22 passes in opening-week action for 165 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Meador has shifted to a receiver spot and led his club with five catches for 121 yards and a pair of scores.
Effingham made some things happen against Breese in its own passing game, including an early 70-yard scoring strike from second-year signal-caller Jaxon Bridges to sophomore Jenner Pals that actually gave the Hearts a first-quarter lead. Pals had a nice little varsity coming-out party with five receptions and 116 yards in his first start under the Friday night lights.
Bridges was solid in completing half his 26 pass attempts, pairing that score with a tough-luck interception on a night in which the senior was entrusted with more passing plays than any night of his junior season.
While it’s clear the Hearts will rely more on the aerial game than a season ago, they’ll need to get more done on the ground this week if they want to keep opposing defenses honest. Central owned the line of scrimmage and thusly limited EHS to all of 11 positive yards of rushing all evening while averaging better than 4 ½ yards per carry in its own rushing attack.
Game time Friday from the Snake Pit is 7 p.m., which means you can tune in at 6:45 to catch the pregame show with Matt and Dustin on your Home for Hearts Football, 979 XFM.
Week 2 Matchups
APOLLO CONFERENCE
(all games are non-conference)
Effingham (0-1) at Mt. Carmel (0-1)
Charleston (0-1) at Paris (1-0)
Morris (1-0) at Mahomet-Seymour (0-1)
Rantoul (0-1) at Mattoon (0-1)
Rochester (1-0) at Mt. Zion (1-0)
Canton (0-1) at Taylorville (0-1)
LINCOLN PRAIRIE CONFERENCE
(all games are conference matchups unless denoted with *)
Argenta-Oreana (0-1) at Cumberland (1-0)
Villa Grove (0-1) at Arcola/Cerro Gordo (0-1)
Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond (1-0) at. Tri-County (1-0)
Nokomis (1-0) at Sullivan (1-0)
Seneca (1-0) at Sangamon Valley (0-1)*
LITTLE ILLINI CONFERENCE
(all games are non-conference)
Newton (1-0) at Trenton Wesclin (0-1)
Casey-Westfield (1-0) at Tuscola (1-0)
Carlyle (0-1) at Lawrenceville (0-1)
Sparta (1-0) at Marshall (1-0)
Effingham (0-1) at Mt. Carmel (0–1)
Olney (1-0) at Salem (0-1)
Charleston (0-1) at Paris (1-0)
Robinson (1-0) at Benton (1-0)
OTHER WEEK 2 GAMES OF NOTE
Breese Mater Dei (0-1) at Breese Central (1-0)
Collinsville (0-1) at Centralia (1-0)