EDWARDSVILLE—The Edwardsville High football team got through a long 17-play opening drive by Belleville East and played very well in the second half to take a come-from-behind 20-10 homecoming game win over the Lancers in a key Southwestern Conference game Friday night at Tiger Stadium.
The Lancers controlled the ball for practically the entire first quarter to open the game, and were the better team in the first half. Edwardsville hung in, and in the second half, turned the tables and used a gritting performance to take the win to go to 6-1 and officially clinch an IHSA playoff berth in a typical Southwestern Conference game.
“Those are the things that this conference can bring,” said Edwardsville head coach Kelsey Pickering. “Belleville East, they’re going to be in the playoffs. Coach (Michael) Harrison does an awesome job. I really respect the program. It was just a hard-fought game, and we talked about it earlier in the week For us, the playoffs have already begun. We talked about it. we’re not one-and-done right now, sure, but our next three, with this game, and our next two, they’re playoff-caliber teams. It’s given us a great look at the playoffs, we get to find out where we are. Tonight, we’re fortunate to be on the side of the W, and that’s a big deal. because we still have a chance to win the conference, and I guess we’ve already made the playoffs with six wins now, so we don’t have to hop and pray we have enough points.”
The Tigers showed a lot of intangibles in the second half which helped them take control of the game, leading to the win.
“Grit,” Pickering said “You know, there’s a lot of things that people don’t get to see Saturday through Thursday, and so, just watching them being able to come in, make the adjustments we needed to make, and just to keep battling. That’s something we try to pride ourselves in, the scoreboard doesn’t matter. just being able to come out and finish. And I think we did a good job tonight. Obviously, we’ll watch the film, and figure out what happened on some things, but I really think they did a good job of not quitting. They just kept playing, and kept going.”
It was East in the first half who came out well, starting with their opening drive, and kept the Tiger defense on the fired for long periods. The second half was a different story, as Edwardsville was able to keep their defense off the field, while the offense took over.
“Yeah, and I can’t remember the field position right now,” Pickering said, “but it seemed like it changed a little bit, which helps. There was the great punt by Yale (Weaver). He had the punt, put them down inside the five. You get them there, now they’re trying to get out of it, and they got a first down, then we get them backed up. We were able to flip the field on them, get a short field for our offense, and anyone who knows football, those are big swings. Now, we can obviously not capitalize on them offensively, but we did. That’s another change in the game for us.”
Overall, the Tigers were able to gut it out and take a vitally important win, and Pickering was very proud of the effort of his team.
“We’ll take the W however we can get it,” Pickering said. “And that part’s easy. We’ll figure out how to fix the rest. But again, and I know everyone’s tired of me saying it, but we’re a three-phase team. And that’s what it took tonight, It wasn’t offense, defense. We all struggled, and we all had a good time, good moments in the game, too. We’re going to continue to be a three-phase team, and that’s what it’s going to take to continue to try to get Ws.”
For the Lancers’ part, they played a solid first half, but in the second half, the Tigers took control, and miscues cost East dearly.
“Well, we’re a little disappointed,” Harrison said, “obviously, things didn’t go our way tonight We started off the game and felt good early. had some things going early. And in that second half, we just could get it going the way we wanted. Again, they came out and drove, scored there in the third quarter on that opening series, and then, we shoot ourselves in the foot on the kickoff, we get a penalty of first down, and before you know it, we were behind the chains and behind So, we just never could get out of our own way in the second half, which is a little disappointing, because we felt like we had some things that we wanted to, and had some pretty good ideas. We just didn’t capitalize on our opportunities there”
The opening drive was a major highlight for East. as the Lancers controlled the ball, and the game in the first half.
“Yeah, obviously, we spent all week game planning to come out in that first drive,” Harrison said, “to open the game up. Again, we didn’t know it would be that many plays, we didn’t know we would take that much time off the clock. But obviously, when you can have things going, you can move the chains, get first downs, good things like that happen So, if we could open up every game with a 17-play, 10-minute drive, we’ll take that. every day of the week.”
The Lancers opened the game with their epic, 17-play, 76-yard drive that took 10:41 to complete, practically the entire first quarter, and it ended with a one-yard touchdown run by Machal Henderson to put East ahead 7-0. The Tiger stuck back on their opening drive climaxed by a three-yard run by Steven Moore, Jr. for the touchdown, but the conversion was blocked, leaving the score 7-6. The defenses took over from there, but late in the first half, Greyson Parker hit a 31-yard field goal to give East a 10-6 lead at halftime.
In the second half, Edwardsville took advantage of a miscue by the Lancers, when a fumbled snap on a punt gave the ball to the Tigers on the East five It didn’t take long for Edwardsville to score, as Javion Smith took the ball in from the five to give the Tigers the lead for the first time at 13-10. On the next possession, the Tigers took advantage of a short filed once again, and Weaver a the ball in early in the fourth quarter from two yards away to up the lead to 20-10. The Tiger defense stiffened at the right time, and held off another East drive that resulted with no points, as the Tigers ran out the clock to take the 20-10 win.
East is now 4-3, and plays their final two games at Charlie Woodford Field, against West next week, and Granite City in week nine. The Tigers are 6-1, and play at East St. Louis next week for the SWC title, then host DeSmet Jesuit of suburban St Louis in the regular season finale in week nine, Kickoff times for all games will by 7 p.m.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
