EFFINGHAM, Ill. — Despite extremely poor field conditions, Graham Glaspy picked a good time to kick Effingham's first field goal of the season and the first of his career Friday night.
Glaspy, a 5-foot-11, 260-pound senior offensive lineman and straight-on kicker, booted a 20-yard field goal with 9.4 seconds remaining to give the host Hearts a 10-7 come-from-behind victory over Althoff in the first round of the Illinois Class 4A state playoffs at Klosterman Field.
Fifth-seeded Effingham upped its record to 9-1. The Hearts will play the Harrisburg-Quincy Notre Dame winner next weekend at a site and day to be determined. Those two teams play in Quincy at 2 p.m. today.
Twelfth-seeded Althoff finished 6-4. Running back Paul Ceferatti rushed for 128 yards on 29 carries.
"I knew I could make the kick," said Glaspy, who had mud caked around his eyes and his red uniform number (71) was covered in mud. "I had been doing pretty well in practice and I had faith in our team that we could get in that position. It's a great feeling. I feel like a mini-celebrity here. Everybody's shaking my hand."
The Hearts were able to get in position to win the game after Crusaders punter Brady Nowak got a bad snap on fourth down and 13 from his 37-yard line with 1 minute 20 seconds to go. Nowak fell on the ball at the 30, allowing Effingham to start from there.
"It was just a bad snap," Althoff coach Ken Turner said. "The elements were bad. But everybody had to play in it. Those type of things will happen on this type of a field."
Quarterback Alex Steppe completed a 10-yard pass to Brad Reedy to the 20 and Althoff was hit with a facemask penalty, putting the ball at the 10. The Crusaders defense, which had stymied Effingham for most of the game, stood tall again, forcing the Hearts to try for the field goal.
"When it got down there, basically it's an extra point," said coach Mike McDonald. "I just told him it's an extra point. All we're going to do is go out there, kick an extra point and we're going to win the game. It was just a matter of getting the snap in the sloppy weather, getting the hold down, if he got his foot into the ball it was going to go through."
Despite muddy conditions better suited for barnyard animals, both teams were able to move the ball in the first half, which ended in a 7-7 tie.
Althoff drew first blood after its defense, which held the Hearts to 128 offensive yards for the game, stopped Effingham running back Jaron Allred at the 1-yard line on a fourth and goal from the 4.
