EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville wasted no time in getting on the board in their Southwestern Conference boys soccer match against Collinsville Tuesday night.

The Tigers got a 13th-minute goal from Michael Picchiotti to open the scoring and were never seriously threatened as they defeated Collinsville 4-0 at Tiger Stadium. The win took their record to 7-0-2 overall and 3-0-1 in the SWC, putting them in the driver's seat of the league standings with three league matches to go.

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“This is one, thought, that you don't want to read too much into it because we did a good job with Collinsville,” Tiger coach Mark Heiderscheid said. “A lot of it is because we go the two quick early goals, with (Riley) Patterson making such an impact early (on the second goal of the match); that sets a tone, and yet Collinsville, I thought, did such a good job with their work rate throughout the contest.

“You look at it on paper and you see it was 4-0, and yet, to me, it was a much more challenging game than the 4-0 reflects.”

“It's a tough team to get down to, especially playing at their place,” said Kahok coach Clay Smith. “I think some goals are preventable and we could have done a better job, but we're just not playing very good soccer now. Credit Edwardsville; they moved the ball well. They're fast, they moved the ball well, their formation was good, they stayed to their game plan, they're technically sound, they didn't make very many mistakes tonight.

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Picchiotti's goal in the 13th minute came off a blast from Riley Patterson that Kahok goalkeeper Brett Niedzwiecki couldn't handle cleanly; the rebound bounced to Picchiotti, who put it away for the 1-0 Tiger lead. Patterson extended the lead in the 16th minute when he unloaded a drive from about 35 yards out directly into the back of the net from the right side, putting EHS up 2-0.

What could had been a turning point came in the 44th minute when the Tigers were awarded a penalty kick; Michael Glisson stepped up and fired, but Niedzwiecki moved to his left and turned back the kick to keep things at 2-0. “That's a great save by Brett and you expect that out of Brett,” Smith said. “He can do that, but we're a man down (a Kahok player was sent off with a red card on the play that led to the penalty), down two goals; it's not easy.

“We basically don't have a midfield and we're playing balls through; you can't do that to yourself. We're digging ourself in a hole.”

Glisson bounced back from the penalty miss in the 54th minute when he took a feed from Picchiotti and put a header behind Niedzwiecki to extend the lead to 3-0; Blaine Noll finished off the scoring in the 68th minute when he broke loose and scored.

The Tigers are off until Saturday, when they travel to Normal for a match against Normal West, then return home Sept. 19 to take on DeSmet.

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