Welcome to Arcola, Cerro Gordo/Bement football

By Mike Monahan

In the summer of 1989 after graduating from St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana, I was looking for my first full-time job in either radio or newspaper. I worked part-time at WLBH in Mattoon for many months. (The biggest announcement I made there was on March 4, 1990 telling people that Hank Gathers (Loyola Marymount and USC) had died. I was hired full-time at the now defunct News-Record, a weekly newspaper that covered Bement and Cerro Gordo, who at that time were fierce competitors. The News-Record was run by the late great Roger Bonham, who later went to the now defunct Arthur Graphic-Clarion.

So, I am familiar with Cerro Gordo and Bement football, especially the early 1990’s. I still tried to cover one of the teams if not both every year even when I was at the Mattoon Journal Gazette/Charleston Times-Courier as Arcola, Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond and Martinsville were some of the schools they played. Of course I have seen Arcola play CGB since I started writing sports again for the Arcola Record-Herald, which is now the County Chronicle in 2021.

While no one wants a sports co-op I do think this is good and hopefully both teams will get more participation and then go back to being Arcola and Cerro Gordo/Bemet after the two year agreement.

So, I welcome CGB to Arcola and Thomas-Bradford Field.

This is not the first time Arcola has been in a co-op in a high school sport as in 2002 and 2003 when Amanda Maxedon and her Oakland teammates were part of a co-op in track with Arcola. Of course one co-op Arcola/Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond golf has been together since 2005.

LeRoy and Tri-Valler were in a sports co-op and finished second in the Class 3A playoffs in 2001 and the split back and LeRoy was the Class 1A runner up in 2003, while Tri-Valley was the runner-up in Class 1A in 2013 which goes to show you can be in a co-op and then split back to single schools and be successful.

When I think of Cerro Gordo football Todd Henricks and Paul Workman are the first two that come to mind as Henricks, an assistant coach and Workman, the head coach, were together for 23 years and the football field was named after the two in August of 2024. On the Bement side I think of former assistant coach John Harshbarger and head coach Jerry Lane. Cerro Gordo-Bement/Deland-Weldon sports co-op started in 2012 and it became Cerro Gordo/Bement in 2014.

The first varsity football game I covered was Bement at Fisher on Sept. 1, 1989. Bement won 20-6. It was at that game that I met a young Bement eighth grader, Ryan Schnierle, who would later turn out to be a very good basketball player and I would become friends with his sister Tiffany and their mom, Nancy Schnierle along with Gene Schnierle, who spent countless hours at Bement sporting events taking photos for the kids. On the Cerro Gordo side I would say long-time high school secretary Mary

Lawyer helped me get whoever it was I wanted to talk to and I became friends with Ami, Tim and Jeff. Mary was the high school secretary for 28 years (retired in 2014) and was married to Roger. Both of whom are deceased.

Great games I covered involving Bement or Cerro Gordo or Cerro Gordo/Bement:

The first game that comes to mind is the snowbowl quarterfinal game of 1995 in Arcola. Arcola won 6-0 over Cerro Gordo. Arcola volunteers cleared the field for a rematch of a 28-20 Arcola in win week five. In the snow and -11 windchill (one of, if not the coldest game I have covered) Arcola’s John Foran had 45 carries for 185 yards. Late in the game Arcola’s Jeremy Shonkwiler and Junior Gauna hit Mike Dunn and forced a fumble that John Vandeveer recovered and Foran scored the only points of the game with 3:30 left. French was injured the week before for the Broncos, who finished 9-3.

Probably one of the best Bement teams was the 1988 team and although I didn’t cover it I thought it deserves a mention. It was the second round of the 1988 playoffs and the Purple Riders won 14-0 at Bement. The two touchdowns occurred in the mud and windy day in the second quarter. Jon Lewis of Bement led the state in rushing with 1,833 yards and he was held to 17 carries for 54 yards. Ron Gillland had 17 carries for 109 yards and a touchdown and Brett Keller hit Chad Hopkins on a 33-yard TD pass on what was his only completion of the day. Bement finished 9-2 with both losses coming to Arcola.

In 2007 when the Purple Riders would go 10-3 losing in the semifinals to Tuscola. Cerro Gordo beat Arcola 26-21. The two teams met on Oct. 20, 2007 at Cerro Gordo. In a story for the JG-TC written by Troy Hayes it said, “Derek Shay believed, Nathan Lawler too. Add in Gavin McCoy, Zach Braden and the rest of the Cerro Gordo Broncos and you’d have to think Cerro Gordo coach Paul Workman ought to be holding a revival in his spare time.”

The Broncos were beaten in the first half as Arcola outgained Cerro Gordo 150-60.Two Purple Rider fumbles in the first half and two big plays by Cerro Gordo in the second half helped the Broncos win a share of the Little Okaw Valley Conference in 15 years. Cerro Gordo finished 8-3 losing to Mt. Olive in the second round.

I wasn’t there, but the last Bement win over Arcola was in 1987, when the Bulldogs won 13-12. One of the South Piatt victories was a 34-33 win in 2005, which kept Arcola out of the playoffs as they went 4-5.

CGB won the first two games against Arcola and the 2012 42-21 victory kept Arcola from making the playoffs going 4-5. The Broncos would go undefeated in the regular season in back-to-back years (2012 and 2013) going 10-1 and 11-1 respectively and were in the Class 2A playoffs. The 2012 undefeated regular season for the Broncos was the first time since 1972 (Broncos went 9-0 under legendary Bill Estes). Cerro Gordo’s Cole Blicknesderfer passed for 170 yards, while Steve Isbell had 283 yards rushing and 84 receiving. Dee Woods had 136 yards rushing and 86 receiving. CGB lost to Camp Point Central in the second round in 2012. For Arcola, who trailed 28-21 in the third quarter, Zach Moutria had 171 yards rushing and three TDs, while quarterback Jose Tamez had 78 yards rushing and 52 passing.

Great players at Bement or Cerro Gordo or Cerro Gordo/Bement that I covered (at least once): first from Cerro Gordo Ryan Jimison, Nick Walker, Nick French, Derek Shay, Travis Bowlby, Greg Ritchie, Matt Ritchie, the late great Robbie Greenwood and Mike Dunn. For Bement Josh Bates (who played for the sports co-op of South PIatt which was Bement and Atwood-Hammond) along with Steve Isbell, a Cerro Gordo/Bement player and from Bement Steve Thompson and Todd Dalton along with Cory Bentley and Eric Jarboe. In the 1989 playoffs I saw Bement beat Milford 12-7 as Chad Turner caught the winning touchdown from Todd Dalton. It was the only time I saw Bement win a playoff game as a 2003 35-13 (as South Piatt) win over Fisher was the only other time since I started writing in 1989.

I just missed Tim Walsh (Bement) and his classmate John Lewis by a year, but of course had heard of him along with Cerro Gordo’s Tyson Manuel, Cerro Gordo’s all-time leading rusher.