Taylorville trips up St. Edward, 26-14

St. Edward coach Mike Rolando was pleased with his team's effort in Saturday's nonconference home matchup with Taylorville.

Unfortunately, the results Rolando and the Green Wave were looking for weren't there.

The visiting Tornadoes made sure of it.

Taylorville, who made the 3-hour trek to Elgin Saturday morning, came away with a 26-14 victory to move its record to 2-0 on the season. St. Edward drops to 1-1.

"We had great effort and never quit," said Rolando. "The effort was unmatched. It was a good battle for us. We ran out of gas. We had too many mental mistakes, which were avoidable. We are a very young team. We start only 3 seniors. We can learn from these mistakes."

Simply, the Green Wave defense couldn't contain Tornadoes senior quarterback Kamren Heimsness. Heimsness accounted for 256 yards of total offense.

The talented senior completed 7-of-12 passes for 122 yards including a 13-yard touchdown to Joe Lyons to give the Tornadoes a 6-0 lead with 5:16 left in the initial quarter. Heimsness, who ran for 134 yards, scored 3 times on runs of 1, 2 and 48 yards.

"Kamren is a 3-sport athlete who loves to compete," said Taylorville coach Jeb Odam. "We wanted to win the time of possession battle and Kamren did a great job of running our offense. We were able to keep the ball away from them."

Lyons caught 4 passes for 80 yards and a touchdown for the Tornadoes.

"Joseph and Kamren have known each other since kindergarten," said Odam. "They have a very good connection and it shows."

The Green Wave, who trailed the entire game, climbed to within 19-14 on a 15-yard run by Joseph Betancourt with 1:20 left in the third quarter. Betancourt's score was set up by a 37-yard completion from Luciano Rolando to Carson Busto.

But the Tornadoes scored on the first play of the fourth quarter on a 48-yard run by Heimsness to take control of the game with 11:55 remaining.

Rolando completed 5-of-15 passes for 80 yards while Deryious Smith ran for 47 yards and a 4-yard touchdown run for the Green Wave.

"Taylorville was a good team for us to play," said Rolando. "They were disciplined and well coached. They had 2 big pass plays and they capitalized on our mistakes."