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EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville's boys soccer team has the knack of being able to connect when they need to.
It was being able to connect that helped lead to a 78th-minute goal from Alec Mills to defeat O'Fallon 2-1 in a Southwestern Conference match at Tiger Stadium Thursday night. The win put the Tigers to 5-0-1 on the season thus far, 3-0 in the SWC; the Panthers fell to 3-3-1 on the year overall, 0-1 in the league.
“Our kids do a pretty good job of connecting in tight spaces,” said Tiger coach Mark Heiderscheid, who was coaching following a visitation for his father, who died earlier in the week. “It's personality of players, personality of groups and that's what theirs is. A lot of it is that flow of playing one and two touches in and around the field; that was certainly indicative of what they tried to bring to the game.”
The Tigers had taken the lead in the 56th minute on a Ethan Miracle goal; the goal held up until the 74th minute, when Jordan Ellis beat EHS goalkeeper Michael Hoelting to his right to tie the match, the first goal the Tigers have conceded this year that wasn't a penalty kick. “There's a common thing that talks about 'what is your reaction?' that's played out often,” following a goal, Heiderscheid said. “Certainly there's no question it can play out in high school as well; I think the reaction, if you look at the demeanor of our players – obviously, O'Fallon is going to be excited – but I thought that, from ours, it was a case that there was still a game on and I thought we were continuing to be very positive and striving to try to get that next goal.
“All of a sudden, there was some sustained pressure from us again from us; I think we were still doing a lot of right things to create that next chance and we finally get the game-winner at that point.”
Mills' goal came off a scramble in front of the goal mouth, when the ball bounced to him and he was able to tuck it past Panther goalkeeper Aiden Cesa for the match-winner. The Panthers had a couple of chances to force extra time, but the Tiger defense turned them back to preserve the win.
Edwardsville will have Labor Day weekend off and returns to action with a trip to Waterloo Gibault at 7 p.m. Sept. 6 before heading to the Morton Tournament the weekend of Sept. 8-9.
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