BELLEVILLE, Ill. — The Belleville East Lancers fell to the Edwardsville Tigers 41-39 in a closely contested Southwestern Conference football game Friday night, Sept. 26, 2025, at home. The loss came in the final seconds, leaving the Lancers just short despite a strong overall performance.
East coach Michael Harrison acknowledged the sting of the defeat but emphasized the competitive nature of the conference and playoff-level football.
“That one stings a little bit,” Harrison said. “But that’s what Southwestern Conference football is all about, and that’s what playoff football is all about. And so, again, our guys are hurting a little bit, but the thing we talked about immediately after the game, is we didn’t play real well in the first half, we made a lot of mental mistakes, we end up getting a couple of extra points blocked, and those are things you just can’t do if you’re going to beat a playoff team, if you’re going to win a Southwestern Conference game. So again, we just didn’t perform good enough to win tonight. It doesn’t mean it was bad, it just wasn’t good enough to beat Edwardsville.”
Despite the loss, Harrison praised his team’s resilience.
“I’m extremely proud of the way our guys battled back,” he said. “One of the things we went in and talked about at halftime is that we were facing a little bit of adversity, and we had to decide how we were going to battle back. So, I’m extremely proud of the way the kids battled back.
“Again, we didn’t go in, and come up with some new trick plays, or change a lot of the stuff, we just had to execute a little better, and the guys did a really good job of that tonight. Again, I’m very happy with the way we fought back, very happy in how we overcame adversity. We just didn’t finish tonight. Edwardsville did a better job of finishing, and when you have those kind of mental mistakes, that’s what happens in the Southwestern Conference.”
The Lancers now stand 4-1 overall at the midpoint of the season.
Harrison remains focused on the road ahead. “We kind of break the season up into thirds,” he said. “Again, after the first three weeks, we were sitting really pretty, now we’re in the middle third, and we’ve got some work to do after losing this tough one tonight, but we’re still in a good position, we still control our own destiny. Again, Southwestern Conference, we’ve got another battle next week.
“So, we’ve got to bounce back, and, again, like I told the guys, Alton doesn’t care what happened tonight, they’re going to try to beat us. So, we’ve got some work to do. We’ll get back in the lab on Monday and clean it up. I’m happy with the way the kids played, not happy with the outcome. Again, we’re going to battle back, and be ready to go next week.”
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
