ALTON – A spate of storms postponed Friday night’s high school football season opener between the Alton Redbirds and the Belleville Althoff Catholic Crusaders. But sunny skies and cooler temperatures greeted both teams and the nice crowd at Public School Stadium on Saturday afternoon to officially kick off the football season.
Alton kicked off the season with a celebration of its seniors, with Senior Day festivities before the 2 p.m. kickoff. Unfortunately for the hosts, once the seniors were applauded, there wasn’t much celebrating to do, with Althoff going up big in the first half and hanging on to a 41-14 victory.
If there was a player to watch in this game, it was Belleville Althoff’s Dierre Hill, who committed to the University of Oregon and their powerhouse college football program. Hill was even wearing Oregon gloves, dark green and decorated with yellow Oregon Os, when he took the field.
Hill made his presence felt right from the jump, a big run on the first Althoff play from scrimmage to start the game that put the Crusaders deep in the Alton red zone. Hill capped the drive with a shorter scamper for the opening touchdown.
Belleville Althoff didn’t look back. A quick three-and-out from the Redbirds gave the visitors a short field, and Dierre Hill found paydirt again for his second rushing TD just five minutes into the game.
A short Crusaders kickoff wasn’t picked up by the Alton return team, and a de facto 25ish yard onside kick gave Althoff another short field, and in one play, a long touchdown pass from sophomore QB Jayden Ellington found senior wideout Charleston Coldon for another TD, just 12 seconds of game time after their last.
It was 21-0 after five minutes and twelve seconds of game time. Alton’s defense was able to stop the next drive from Althoff and force a three-and-out after wrapping up Dierre HIll.
Althoff added two scores in the second quarter, a long pass to Kylin Jordan where he left Redbird defenders in the dust, and another TD for Dierre Hill for good measure.
Althoff took their foot off the gas and brought on some fresh legs for the second half, but the second half was a big improvement for the Redbirds, who started to find a bit of a rhythm. The Redbirds found the endzone twice in the second half, but unfortunately a bit too late to turn the tide in their favor.
Quarterback Riley Smith tossed the two touchdown passes to Samaj Stampley, one from 20 yards out with 4:47 left in the third and another in the fourth, a 12-yarder with 8:08 remaining.
As the day’s heat wore on, the offenses slowed, and defense ruled the second half. Althoff tacked on just six in the second half after exploding for 35 in the first, for a final score of 41-14.
After facing a Belleville Althoff team that went 10-2 in 2023, Alton now heads to Quincy to face a Blue Devils team that went 11-1 last season. The Crusaders of Althoff Catholic will head north to Decatur to take on the St. Teresa Bulldogs.
