EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville scored on its first three possessions of the second half, and blew open a close game, taking a 35-0 win over Belleville West on a windy, rainy Friday night at Tiger Stadium.
The game was played on the outer edge of Hurricane Helene, with a sudden cloudburst and rainy conditions early in the first half, and as the rain stopped later on, a strong wind blew throughout. Edwardsville was able to shrug off the conditions, and played well in raising its record to 4-1.
“Well, I feel good,” said Tigers head coach Kelsey Pickering. “Anytime you get a conference win, that’s a big deal. Belleville West showed they were a good team, they’re going to be alright in the conference. So, it’s just a nice place for us to come out and clean up the second half a little bit, just played well.”
The Tigers held a 14-0 halftime lead before blowing the game open with their three touchdowns in the opening of the second half.
“We executed in the second half,” Pickering said, “we did what we were supposed to Obviously, the wind’s a factor in a game like this, and it’s blowing. So, when you can keep the ball, we’ve seen that before. It was nice to be able to come out in the second half, and kind of put it together.”
The weather was also a factor in the game, but it didn’t affect either team in what they wanted to do.
“It just changes calls, that’s all,” Pickering said. “Mentally or anything like that, it doesn’t change anything. It’s just what you’re calling, so we were still able to throw, Belleville West was able to throw the ball. It had its impact on play calling.”
The running back tandem of Steven Moore, Jr. and Gavin Yates is starting to provide the Tigers a one-two punch in the backfield, as Moore ran well in the first half, and Yates did the same in the second.
“Well, sure, when you’ve got a two-headed monster,” Pickering said, “but don’t forget who’s up front, blocking for them. So, the offensive line, those guys are doing a good job. It’s what we expect out of them, they do a good job. They work hard for it. They’re both seniors, they know what they want. So, for them to be able to go out and execute, then go out and watch the O-line did a great job of taking the line. We all just put it together.”
The Maroons are having a good season themselves, and are now 3-2, but lost for the 11th straight season to Edwardsville, but played hard, nonetheless.
“I’m upset,” said West head coach Ken Turner. “Obviously, no one wants to lose, but our goal is to come in here, and we took over a program that hasn’t won a game in two-and-a-half years, so we’re trying to change the culture around. I feel like we’re doing that, and we kept in close in the first half, but we’ve gotta score points. You can’t win a game without scoring points.
After a tight defensive game in the first quarter, which ended scoreless, the Tigers were able to go on a 12 play, 72-yard drive that finished with a seven-yard touchdown run by Moore early in the second to give Edwardsville a 6-0 lead after the conversion was missed. Later in the quarter, quarterback Yale Weaver connected with Gavin Potthast for a 51-yard touchdown pass with 1:15 left in the first half to give the Tigers a 14-0 halftime lead after a two-point conversion was good.
The Edwardsville defense was able to stop the Maroon offense, not letting West have good field position and getting good stops when they needed to.
It continued in the second half, as the Maroons weren’t able to cross into Edwardsville territory much. And when they did, the Tiger defense threw up a good effort to stop the Maroons.
On the first possession of the second half, Edwardsville 66 yards in eight plays, climaxing with Weaver hitting Clayton Lakatos in the end zone from eight yards out to up the lead to 21-0. On the next possession, it only took the Tigers five plays to score, as Yates went up the middle one yard for the score that made it 28-0. Finally, on the Tigers’ third possession of the half, Yates went left, and ran 26 yards for the final touchdown that made the final score 35-0, as the Tiger defense shut down West the rest of the way.
The Tigers play next Friday at Alton in a 7 p.m. kickoff, while the Maroons play at East St. Louis next Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
