Coal City pushes closer to state championship game with team effort

When you drive into Coal City, there are two green signs with white lettering. The first one reads “Coal City” with the population of 5,587 listed below. The second sign right underneath it reads “Home of Landin Benson.”

The sign is in commemoration of Benson’s state championship in wrestling his junior season, but his accomplishments on the football field have been just as mythical. He owns the Coal City career rushing record and also carries out kicking duties for the Coalers. In his four-year career, there’s not much Benson hasn’t done.

But even he’d tell you that no one does it alone.

The Coal City football team will face off in the Class 4A state semifinals Saturday afternoon at home against DePaul Prep. A victory would send the seventh-seeded Coalers to the state championship game for the first time since 2004. Benson has certainly led the way for this group, but what was evident in the quarterfinal win over Dixon on Saturday is that he’s far from the only contributor.

“It feels amazing [to be going to the state semis],” Benson said after the win over Dixon. “The whole team came out strong both halves. We really put it together, so I’m proud of the team. ... The defense made plays and helped put the offense in good position, so [I] couldn’t ask for much else.”

Indeed, Benson ran for 136 yards and threw a 2-yard touchdown pass on a trick play against Dixon in the 20-13 win. He also converted a first down on fourth-and-1 with 1:28 left to ice the game.

However, it was Zander Meents who tossed two touchdown passes that were both caught by Gabe McHugh, who also had an interception. Gavin Berger caught Benson’s TD pass. Carter Gill picked off a Dixon pass in the fourth quarter in the red zone, and Donnie Ladas’ fumble recovery inside the Coalers’ 10 with less than two minutes to go helped save the game and set up Benson’s game-icing conversion.

“You go through the game and different guys all stepped up,” Coal City coach Francis Loughran said. “That’s what we needed to win today. Defensively we had interceptions, tackles for loss, great coverage, it was all great. The offensive line played great and when we needed big plays guys stepped up like Zander and Berger. Dylan Young blocking on the edge was critical. It was a total team effort.”

Coal City, again, is the seventh seed. While the Coalers won against lower seeds the first two rounds, Dixon was the third seed on their side of the bracket. In a wacky playoff season, the Coalers are actually the highest seed remaining in 4A, as DePaul is ninth while the other side of the bracket has 10th-seeded Normal and 12th-seeded Mount Zion. Still, the Coalers have played a bit of an underdog role at 10-2.

That’s fine with them. They’re used to the narrative being something different than what the reality is. They’re more focused on the objective in front of them and staying focused as one.

“We’ve got that fight,” Berger said. “We may not be ranked the highest, but we’re always going to fight. We come out and play physical football and hit someone in the mouth.”

In some cases, the Coalers actually use that underdog mentality to their advantage.

“We’re not really big, but we have a lot of heart,” McHugh said. “We have a lot of passion. We have four captains, but it feels like everyone’s a captain. We work hard and push each other insanely hard in practice each and every day. It’s been that way all year. We have some guys that love the game and want to keep it going.”

Saturday’s game will be the last one on the Coalers’ home field this season, win or lose. Coal City has just one football state championship in its history, and it came in 1993. There will be no lack of motivation Saturday as the Coalers aim to keep things going another week.

“We’ve got to just stop the run and not allow deep balls on defense,” Ladas said. “Most of all, we have to work as a team.”