This week in Villa Grove football history

By Tony Hooker
This week was a successful one for Villa Grove’s historical football teams, with four of the five  spotlighted teams emerging victorious, including two who claimed conference titles and another who inched a step closer to doing so.

1970
The Blue Devils claimed a share of their first Okaw Valley Conference title since 1964 by routing Monticello 44-8.  Austin Rund scored on a “flea flicker” toss from Mike Parsley, who had caught a three-yard pass from Rick Carr to get the Blue Devils on the board.  Allen Reinhart then intercepted a Sage lateral on the first play from scrimmage and took it the distance, 26 yards for another score, and the Devils took a 14-0 lead into the halftime locker room.  The third quarter saw Rick Coffman catch a 12-yard touchdown pass on a tackle eligible play as the Devils started to separate.  Early in the fourth, VGHS scored their second defensive touchdown of the game as Paul Wilhelm scooped up Monticello fumble and rumbled 36 yards to put the Blue Devils up 28-0.  Reinhart then continued the defensive onslaught, picking up yet another Sage fumble and racing 46 yards to pay dirt and after Carr found Parsley for the two-point conversion, VG led 36-8.  Randy Stillman then picked off a pass to set up the Blue’s final TD.  Carr hit Parsley for a 46-yard gain to the one, and then Parsley ran it in from there to and after Austin Rund carried in the two-point conversion, the final score was set at 44-8. The game marked the final appearance in the Okaw Valley for Villa Grove, as the Blue Devils would move to the new Little Okaw Valley Conference in 1971. 

1980
Phil Wegeng rushed for 52 yards and two scores, and Brent Shunk caught 9 passes for 119 yards and two TD’s of his own as VG blasted Newman 32-0.  Brian Willis and Jay Schreiber each recovered fumbles, and Mike Mayes had a 58-yard pick six for the Grovers.  Glenn Reinhart also had an interception, and Ken Schwengel was 11-19 for 145

yards and two scores to lead the way.  Paul Turner spearheaded the Devil defense, making 8 stops.  

1990
The Blue Devils got 223 yards, including a 28-yard scoring run, from Aaron Johnson as they defeated the Atwood Hammond Rajahs 30-6 to gain a share of the Little Okaw Valley Conference title.  Chris Vandeventer rushed for two scores and Eric Sigler scored on the Devil’s first play from scrimmage on a nifty 35-yard run. VG improved to 6-2 overall, 4-1 in the conference with the win.

2000
No stats are available for the Devils as they lost their homecoming contest to Martinsville by a score of 43-14.  Justin Carr provided one of the few highlights, scampering 48 yards for a TD.  

2010
Villa Grove’s perfect season continued as the Devils jumped out to a 48-0 halftime lead and defeated the Arthur Knights 54-0.  Jesse Shrum had nine and 32-yard td runs, Earvin Westray caught td passes of 15 and 16 yards from Eric Douglas, Jason Deedrick had a fumble recovery for a touchdown, Jon Bretz had a 32-yard TD run, and freshmen Austin Hubbart and John Henderson each tacked on scoring runs to set the final score.