CHAMPAIGN — Comebacks never really happened for the Danville football team last season.
But in Friday’s opener against Champaign Central, the Vikings started the season with a reversal of that.
Down 24-20 with a couple of minutes left, the Vikings would go on a drive that ended with a 46-yard D’Mario Jackson pass to DeMario Kropp-Morris with a minute, 14 seconds left for a 26-24 win.
“They have been able to grow up and a year ago, if we had these situations, they would have given up,” Danville head coach Marcus Forrest said. “They fought through a extremely bad first half. They wanted to do well and played well at times, there were moments when they had bad plays and had moments where they dropped their head. But to come together and play together and have a better second half and it showed the growth we had in a year.”
For Jackson, the pass completed the first game as a starting quarterback for the senior and three-time IHSA Class 2A track champion. Along with the pass, he ran for a touchdown earlier in the game.
“It was nerve-wracking at first but I calmed my mind over and over. Also, everything came down to our training,” Jackson said. “We just had to get it done. I saw my receiver and I was able to get it out in front of him and he went and got it. We come in a package deal … we call ourselves DND and we come to work every day.”
Jackson was supposed to be part of a quarterback by committee for the Vikings, but Forrest realized that he didn’t need a committee.
“The committee shrunk, but when you have a great kid who is a state champion, it helps a lot,” Forrest said. “We have some other kids, but he stuck out and he was the one that was confident. He built everyone up. He had a tough go and had chance where he might have cramped up, but I looked at him and I wasn’t worried. He was able to get out of those situations. He leads us in different areas and builds others up. I am going to enjoy that with it being his senior season.”
Another senior, Amillian Beasley, scored twice in the third quarte, including a 92-yard touchdown run.
“The reason I got that touchdown was because of my front line and their blocking,” Beasley said. “If they were not there, I would have not gotten the touchdown, I like to thank them, my wide receivers and I appreciate this whole team and that’s why we got this win because we worked together.”
After a offseason of hard work, Beasley and Jackson said what they took away from that offseason helped them get through a tough first half — which saw the Vikings down 12-6 — and a time where they were down 18-6 in the third quarter.
“I feel like this year, we all worked together, we all worked hard and coaches worked our butts off this week,” Beasley said. “We have even been working all summer, so I see this is what working hard gets us and I am proud of my team.”
“We did a lot of hard work over the summer and we didn’t want that hard work to go to waste,” Jackson said. “We came in here with a different mentality all day every day.”
Beasley and Jackson, along with sophomore Jaymion Cunningham, were placed in the backfield for most of the game.
“We have athletes and my job is to utilize them and put them in the best position to make plays,” Forrest said. “I was able to put them in positions and early, it wasn’t a matter of them not finding holes, but them not running where they were supposed to. Once they did what they were supposed to do, things started to come together. Once we built confidence, good things happened.”
Forrest said they were also able to overcome some little things
“Defensively, I know they were tired and we had some tough plays and we had little things happen like a bad snap and a bad punt, but one we started taking care of those little things, some good things happened.”
The Vikings will try to sweep the Champaign teams on Friday, when the Vikings host Champaign Centennial in the first home game of the season.
“We are trying to wipe them all and Urbana,” Beasley said. “(On Friday), they talked trash on social media but I see this is where talking trash gets you, losing.”
“It is a chance to go for another Champaign team, but it is also a chance to fix all the miscues that we had. If we fix the miscues and take care of those things, we don’t get behind and we are able to battle. We are building for this week and we have to get better ourselves and if we do that, everything will work out.”