COLLINSVILLE – The Collinsville High football team exploded for 21 unanswered points in the second quarter as running back Jerry Richardson scored three touchdowns and quarterback Ethan Bagwell added two more as the Kahoks defeated Alton 47-0 in a week three football game Friday night at Kahok Stadium.
Although the Redbirds trailed throughout the entire game, the players never gave up and kept battling throughout the entire game.
“It’s tough,” said first-year Alton head coach David Parker. “I feel kind of disappointed, disappointed in our play and disappointed, just the effort that we gave. But did keep fighting until the end. Collinsville came out and put it on us a little bit, put it on us, came out very aggressive and we just couldn’t match them. So I just told the guys after the game hey, it’s just something we’ve got to chalk up to our learning experience, put it away and let’s come back on Monday and let’s get ready for Belleville West.”
The two teams traded defensive stops on the opening two possessions, but in the third possession, the Kahoks went 51 yards to score the game’s opening touchdown and never looked back.
“Defensively, we had a few blown coverages,” Parker said, “a few assignments were blown, people got jobs and duties they tried to overcompensate and tried to do something on their own and that kind of hurt us. And when that happens, big plays are made. We tried to drop back there before the half, same thing against Cahokia. We kin of tried to do our prevent (defense), but we had a guy not being where he’s supposed to be and that was kind of the name of the game defensively. We had at least one or two people out of place.”
Offensively, Graham McAfoos, Keith Gilchrese, Gardell Ballinger, William Harris and Byron Stampley, Jr., among others, played well and had their moments, keeping the Redbirds in the game.
“Oh, yeah,” Parker said. “Like I said, we had a good week of practice and we thought the game plan was solid. We had our moments when the guys came out. Graham, an outstanding job fighting in there amongst the pressure, did a good job of hitting his receivers and (Gilchrese) and (Ballinger), they do an excellent job of running the ball. Like we say, just get downhill, get behind your pads and get what you can get and we’ll take that. If we can get three or four, we’ll take that and continue to move the sticks. But unfortunately, we just couldn’t get enough of that.”
The two defenses exchanged holds on the opening two possessions to get the proceedings underway, and on the Kahoks’ second possession, Collinsville went 51 yards in eight plays as Bagwell went in from three yards out, but missed a two-point convert with 13.4 seconds left in the first quarter to give the Kahoks a 6-0 lead. In the second quarter, Richardson climaxed a drive with a 15-yard run up the middle with 6:53 left in the first half to make it 13-0 after Andrew Chi’s conversion. Darren Pennell intercepted a McAfoos pass on the second play of the next possession and Collinsville immediately cashed in on the turnover as Bagwell hit Isaiah Gordon with a 70-yard touchdown pass that made it 20-0 after the conversion.
The Redbirds went on their best drive of the evening soon after, as Ballinger had some good runs, as did Gilchrese and McAfoos. The Redbirds were aided by a personal foul penalty against Collinsville, but the drive stalled and eventually, Collinsville held on downs. The Kahoks scored 2.4 seconds from halftime when a wide-open Richardson hauled in a pass from Bagwell and went 61 yards for the touchdown to give the Kahoks a 27-0 lead at halftime.
In the third quarter, Bagwell scored from nine yards out after the Kahoks got a short field due to penalties on their first possession of the second half, making it 34-0 after Chi’s convert, then went on a long 15-play, 79-yard drive that took 7:21 off the clock as Bagwell hit Richardson from nine yards out to give Collinsville a 41-0 lead and triggered the second half running clock rule for the remainder of the game. The Kahoks got their last score in the fourth when Rollin Armes scored on a six-yard run with 4:32 left to give Collinsville its 47-0 win.
