DANVILLE — A little heat, a little extra humidity and a tough Normal West football team just simply wore down the Danville Vikings on Friday night at Ned Whitesell Field.
The Wildcats scored 22 unanswered points in the game’s final 18 minutes to beat the Vikings 28-14 in a Big 12 Conference contest.
“We just wore down mentally and physically,” Danville coach Marcus Forrest said. “We have been telling them all week about being hydrated because we knew the heat and humidity were going to be higher tonight than it was earlier this week. Unfortunately, our guys didn’t heed our advice and we started having problems in the second half.”
Danville, which falls to 1-2 with the loss, was already playing without three offensive linemen — two because of grades and one for school disciplinary reasons — but the losses the Vikings suffered Friday night came from its skilled positions.
Senior wide receiver/defensive back Diddy Robinson, who scored both touchdowns for the Vikings, missed a handful of plays in the third quarter as did quarterback/linebacker Darius Jay and defensive back Jayden Rowell.
“We just didn’t do a good enough job of getting ourselves hydrated this week,” Robinson admitted. “It’s frustrating because we were playing well and we were beating them when we started cramping up in the second half.”
The Vikings took a 14-6 lead on their first possession of the second half when Robinson split a pair of Normal West defenders for a 47-yard scoring strike from Jay. On the subsequent 2-point conversion, Jay got into the end zone but that’s when he started cramping.
Normal West responded with a eight-play, 60-yard scoring drive. Cooper Temples, who also scored in the first half for the Wildcats, plunged past the Danville defense on a 2-yard run. Temples also added the 2-point conversion on a pass from Jrue Mangerum.
The Vikings tried to answer back, but Robinson’s 69-yard kickoff return was called back by one of 10 penalties. Danville still put together an 11-play 53-yard drive but it stalled at the Normal West 22 thanks to a dropped pass on third down and an overthrown ball on fourth down.
Danville was unable to attempt a field goal on that drive or the first half drive that got stopped at the West 11 because kicker Tim Long was out with a foot injury and the Vikings were also missing both of its holders — one with injury and the other with grades.
The Wildcats (2-1) took advantage of their momentum with a pair of touchdown drives sandwiched around a fumble by the Vikings.
Cody Muhlbauer scored on runs of 60 and 10 yards to give Normal West a two-score lead they would never relinquish.
A complete recap of Danville’s game against Normal West will be available in both the print and online versions of the Commercial-News on Tuesday.
At Ned Whitesell Field
Normal West 28, Danville 14
Normal West `0 `6 `8 `14 `— `28
Danville `0 `6 `8 `0 `— `14
Second quarter
Normal West — Cooper Temples 21-yard run (kick failed) 11:53.
Danville — Diddy Robinson 39-yard pass from Darius Jay (pass failed) 0:22.
Third quarter
Danville — Robinson 47-yard pass from Jay (Jay run) 8:06.
Normal West — Temples 2-yard run (Temples pass from Jrue Mangruem) 5:09.
Fourth quarter
Normal West — Cody Muhlbauer 60-yard run (Jace Fleming kick), 10:12.
Normal West — Muhlbauer 10-yard run (Fleming kick) 3:08.