3 takeaways from Normal U-High football's dominant win at Southeast

Normal U-High football coach Brody Walworth earned his first true win with the Pioneers.

Junior quarterback Colin Cunningham completed 12 of 19 passing attempts for 185 yards and three touchdowns and U-High rolled to a 43-21 Central State Eight Conference victory over Southeast at Spartan Field on Friday.

Walworth — former coach at Pleasant Plains — and the Pioneers (2-2 overall, CS8) were coming off a Week 3 forfeit win against Lanphier and led Southeast 43-0 at halftime.

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Walworth lauded the team's execution and attention to detail.

"That's really for us what I love as a coach and what makes me excited is we got guys who bought into what we're doing," Walworth said.

Cunningham's night for U-High

JaQuan Harris returned a blocked punt for a touchdown and U-High scored on its next four possessions. 

Senior receiver Bronson Moeller ran 21 yards into the end zone and Cunningham dialed up a crisp 18-yard TD pass to senior tight end Ryan Pukacz to lead 22-0 early in the second quarter.

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Cunningham later scrambled out of the pocket and lobbed a 14-yard TD pass to Pukacz with 4.8 seconds remaining in the first half.

Cunningham said the offensive line set the tone.

"They just let me drop back every time," Cunningham said. "I didn't have to worry about anything. They created that time I needed."

Pukacz had three catches for 39 yards and two TDs. Moeller also had three receptions for 66 yards in addition to his TD run. 

Cunningham spread the ball around to six different receivers. He had plenty of time in the pocket but also showed he could improvise. 

Junior running back Cade McClellan additionally ran for 61 yards and one TD, and U-High's defense limited the Spartans (2-2 overall, CS8) to just five first downs.

"I think he's thinking less, but he did a great job of moving around the pocket tonight," Walworth said of Cunningham. "He's got a huge upside. You saw some of his potential tonight. He's still a young player. He hasn't started a lot of varsity games, so we're all still learning. But it's good to learn when you're doing it well and I think that's what we did tonight."

Former Plains coach: Process over product

Walworth coached four seasons at Pleasant Plains and led the Cardinals to their first state championship game appearance in his last season in 2017. He is now beginning his first season at U-High and is the director of the learning center at U-High.

Walworth said the opportunity was too good to pass up.

"Just a lot of positives and plusses that brought me back," Walworth said. "I'm real excited to be here and coaching this group."

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One of his tenets is process over product. It's about how you execute rather than the result, Walworth said.

"Process for us is 'how,' not the 'what' — and we really focus on how we do things because we ultimately think that leads to the right product," Walworth said.

That sharp execution led to a positive result Friday night and Cunningham described Walworth as a great coach.

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"It's a team effort," Cunningham said. "Everybody came out and did their jobs. The o-line blocked, the running backs ran, the wide receivers ran the routes really hard and got open. Without us playing like a team and doing our jobs, we wouldn't have accomplished what we did."

Southeast's halftime challenge

The first half went off the rails for Southeast, which was also coming off a forfeit win last week against Decatur MacArthur.

Southeast coach Matt Lauber said he challenged his guys during intermission, and the Spartans responded with three scoring drives.

Sophomore running back James Cummings totaled 11 carries for 113 yards and one touchdown. That included a 59-yard TD run at the start of the fourth quarter.

"We got after it, we didn't quit and we didn't fold," Lauber said. "I told the boys there were times in my tenure we wouldn't have been excited or would have had a great game in the second half. That's something to build upon. That's what we're excited about."

Contact Bill Welt: bill.welt@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/BillWelt