Danville applied the age-old adage of it's not how you start as much as how you finish in the 24-14 victory at Utica on Aug. 30.
"In the first half, we were pretty slow surprisingly, probably a four out of 10," said Danville linebacker Josh Byers, who paced the defense with seven tackles, two tackles for loss, and a sack. "In the second half, we came out flying to balls, ready to fight. That helped us turn it over, and it was like an eight out of 10."
Neither team was able to generate much offense during a scoreless first half, paving the way for the Danville defense to keep the game close.
"I think our defense did a great job at the end of the second quarter holding firm in the red zone," said Danville coach Matt Blum, whose team improved to 2-0. "Then our offense executed in the second half. We had an 18-play drive. It just took us a little while to execute well enough for the win."
Danville exploded for 24 points in the second half.
Cyren Wallace finally broke through for Danville, scoring on a 14-yard run midway through the third quarter. The lead was extended to 16-0 on the first of two fourth-quarter touchdown runs by Aiden Burke, who finished with 150 yards on 20 carries.
According to Blum, there wasn't much that needed to be said in the halftime locker room to turn things around for Danville.
"I told them to believe in themselves," Blum said. "Honestly, there weren't a lot of halftime adjustments we needed to make. They just needed to play hard for each other. They were thinking a little too much in the first half, they were playing slow. We ask them to play fast and with effort, when we do that we end up scoring 24 points in the second half."
Uitca's Gavin Tussey scored a pair of touchdowns in the second half with a 47-yard catch from Hayden Piper and an 8-yard run in closing minutes of the contest.
"We obviously have some things to work on. It's hard to give you a true rating, I think we came out a little flat," Blum said. "It was almost a reversal of last week where we came out on fire on both sides of the ball. It's good to be 2-0 but we need to keep making improvements to get where we want to go."
