Published: October 11, 2008 03:22 am         

Anderson, Vikes win

DANVILLE — Malcolm Anderson had never made a field goal in his prep football career.

His only attempt — a 33-yarder in the opener against Bloomington during the first overtime — sailed wide right.

Anderson entered Friday’s contest with Champaign Central making just 14-of-20 on extra-point attempts.

But with just 12 seconds remaining in the homecoming contest and the score tied 14-14, Anderson was lining up a game-winning field goal attempt.

“To tell you the truth, since it was my first field goal, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it,’’ Anderson admitted.

Central head coach Dave Jacobs didn’t make things any easier using the Maroons final timeout to make Anderson think about the kick, and it also gave Central sideline time to get into Anderson’s head.

“There was a little bit of pressure, listening to the other team from the sidelines,’’ Anderson said. “They were saying a whole bunch of stuff. They thought I was going to miss.’’

Anderson, who for the first time in three weeks needed only one attempt to make his final kick in Thursday’s practice, split the uprights with his 26-yard field goal from the right hashmarks to give Danville a 17-14 win over Central in a Big 12 Conference contest at Ned Whitesell Field.

“I just kept my head down and followed through on it,’’ said Anderson, an old-fashion straight-on kicker. “The coaches are always telling me to keep my head down, because you can’t tell where it’s going to go if you pull your head up.’’

Danville holder Mario Crosby, who set up Anderson’s game-winning attempt with a 50-yard run in the final minute, even reminded Anderson about keeping his head down before the kick.

While Anderson wasn’t completely sure he was going to make the kick, Crosby had complete confidence in the 6-foot, 170-pound junior.

“Because I have confidence in my teammates and because we practice those situations a lot,’’ Crosby said. “Coach is always telling us that we only have three seconds left and we’re on this side of the field, and the championship is on the line with this kick.

“We do it that way in practice to get us ready for this situation and it paid off.’’

While the week ends with Anderson being the star of the homecoming contest, things didn’t quite go as well earlier this week for him.

Senior Jeff Harris was the starting quarterback on Friday night, replacing Anderson, who had started the first six contests for the Vikings.

“Malcolm is a good kid,’’ Crosby said. “He didn’t allow himself to put his head down and not play hard for his team.

“He stepped up and kicked the ball well tonight.’’

Danville coach B.J. Luke said it was a testament to the young man’s perseverance.

“He got an opportunity to step up and contribute, and that says a lot of positive about him,’’ Luke said. “He could have gone in the tank, but he didn’t. He stepped up, kicked it through and he is the homecoming hero.

“We’ve had kids in and out of positions, playing and not playing all year, but our kids have stepped up and done a great job of staying the course. They are still competing for jobs, still competing for playing time.’’

Anderson knows that he will get his time at quarterback as long as he keeps doing what he needs to do each week.

The game-winning field goal is a big confidence booster for the junior, who sat out of football a year ago.

“It gives me a lot of confidence that I can do anything that I put my mind to and if I listen to the people that are teaching me, good things will happen,’’ he said.

Danville’s defense and Crosby set up Anderson for his late-game heroics.

Central, which had tied the game at 14-14 on a Doug Kyrouac 11-yard pass to DeAngelo Williams, drove down to the Danville 35 with less than a minute left in the contest.

Kyrouac threw three consecutive incompletions, turning the ball over to the Vikings on downs with :48 left.

On Danville’s first play from scrimmage, Crosby took a handoff running right.

On his previous 17 attempts, the junior had managed just 34 yards with his longest gain being 13, but this time he saw a cutback lane.

Crosby broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage and raced 50 yards down the left sideline, giving Danville a first down on the Central 15.

“My coach (Luke) is always telling me to not put myself down; stick in there; keep running it; and I going to end up breaking one,’’ Crosby said. “When I hit the hole that time, I saw something and I got out into the open.

“It looked like they overpursued and I was able to cut it back. I thought I was going to score, but it was still a big run for the team.’’

Luke said the Vikings took advantage of the Maroons defensive alignment with the running play.

“We were thinking that they would be looking for a pass. And we are thinking they are going to be short men in the box, for the first time all night — and they were,’’ Luke said. “Mario can make plays, if we can get hats on people, he can make plays.

“If he just keep pounding and pounding it, something is going to break for him.’’

Danville (6-1) took two shots into the end zone in the final 21 seconds, but passes intended for Cameron Ford and Derrick Cunningham fell incomplete setting up Anderson.

Central (4-3) didn’t get a chance to answer in the final seconds as Anderson’s kickoff went off one of the front line guys on the Maroons’ kickoff return team and was recovered by Danville’s Mike Bowman.

Cunningham got the scoring started with a 40-yard touchdown reception from Harris to give the Vikings a 7-0 lead.

Harris was 10-of-27 for 182 yards and he spread things out with Cunningham had four receptions for 58 yards, Ford had four catches for 69 and Ayron Worthington had two grabs for 55.

The Maroons tied it at 7-7 with 2:32 left in the first half on Denzel Stewart’s 70-yard touchdown run. Stewart ran for 206 yards on 33 carries, giving him nearly 1,200 yards on the season.

The Vikings answered that score with a 96-yard kickoff return by MykeTez Forman. It was the first time in two games that Danville didn’t run a reverse on the return.

“Without the good blocking, we wouldn’t have had that run back,’’ Forman said. “Special teams wound up being the difference in the game.’’

With Decatur MacArthur’s 48-21 loss to Normal Community on Friday night, Danville now finds itself in a four-way tie for the Big 12 Conference lead at 6-1 with Bloomington, MacArthur and Normal Community.

Up next for the Vikings is the regular-season home finale against the Ironmen. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.