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EDWARDSVILLE – A brace (two goals) by Hannah Bielicke, along with Rileigh Kuhns’ spectacular free-kick goal in the 57th minute and two assists, helped Edwardsville come from behind twice to defeat Collinsville 4-2 in a Southwestern Conference girls soccer match Tuesday evening at Tiger Stadium.
The Tigers overcame a very unusual own goal after 11 minutes to equalize before halftime, then overcame an early second-half Kahok strike to score three unanswered goals to take the three points.
It was all Edwardsville head coach Abby Federmann could have asked for as she celebrated her birthday on Tuesday with the Tigers’ first win over Collinsville since 2012, and first at home in 12 years.
“Oh, absolutely,” Federmann said. “We haven’t beaten Collinsville in five years. We haven’t beaten Collinsville on our turf since 2007, so it was a fabulous win. Just to see these girls not stop and not be OK with getting scored on first, to be able to come back, equalize, to be able to equalize again, and then turn it on and be able to secure this win, it was a great effort to watch.”
The Tigers were able to fight back through that early own goal, and Federmann was quick to credit her side for the comeback.
“Yeah, we did,” Federmann said. “They rallied, they didn’t let that get to them by any means. There was a big deal to have Hannah Bielicke equalize before the half, so we were able to go in and just kind of reorganize and see where our attack needs to be. They came out to shut down our outsides, which we alternately wanted to use, and we were able to adjust to that, and those girls just worked together and had a lot of fun out there, and you could tell.”
The Kuhns wonder strike, plus an incredible cross that was headed in by Bielicke on the hour, were two incredible goals by any stretch of the imagination.
“No, they were just all really great goals,” Federmann said. “There wasn’t anything that was kind of ‘that shouldn’t have gone in, that was lucky,’ these were solid goals. Rileigh Kuhns on a direct kick is about as 100 percent as you can get. She is a very big threat, so when I called for her to take it, she looks at me, and I say ‘shoot the ball.’ And it was just a rocket. And that motivated everybody from there on out that ‘we’re gonna win this, we’re gonna shut them down.’ And they did.”
The match started out evenly with both teams feeling each other out, but Collinsville having a couple of good chances. But in the 11th minute, Mariah Siverly got a cross in that Tiger goalie Rachel Hensley was able to catch right on the line, and as she turned to put the ball back into play, the referee ruled that Hensley had put the ball across the line into the net and gave the Kahoks the goal for a 1-0 lead.
Undaunted, the Tigers then stepped up their play, and in the 18th minute, an Edwardsville player was brought down in the box after a nice run, but the penalty wasn’t given. In the 24th minute, the Kahoks produced a good through ball, but it was easily scooped up by Hensley to stop the attack. In the 31st minute, the Tigers had a great opportunity on a free kick in front, but the Collinsville defense was there to clear it away, but only temporarily, as on the same play, Kuhns got a nice chip in to Bielicke, who slotted the ball past Kahok goalie Claire Rendelman into the right-hand corner of the net to tie the game at 1-1.
Right before the halftime whistle, Emma Hensley had a brilliant chance off a header from a great cross, but Rendleman made the save just as the siren went, as the two sides went into the locker rooms tied at 1-1.
The Tigers got off to a great start after the interval, with Emma Sitton making a nice spin move and getting a shot in that just went past the far post, keeping it 1-1. In the 47th minute, Collinsville had a free kick just outside the box, when it was cleared away by the Tiger defense, but the ball found its way to Alyssa Tucker, who first-timed it into the back of the net to give the lead back to the Kahoks at 2-1.
Four minutes later, the Kahoks had a corner, where another shot by Tucker was deflected out, and on the second corner, the Edwardsville defense cleared it away. In the 54th minute, Payton Federmann flicked on a header right to Emma Sitton, who’s first-time chip went into the back of the net to tie the game at 2-2, giving the Tigers the momentum.
The Tigers then had a free kick opportunity in the 57th minute just outside the box, and in the 58th minute, Kuhns struck an absolute laser beam of a shot straight into the back of the net to give the Tigers the lead for the first time at 3-2. Two minutes later, a Tucker shot off went straight over the top, and in the 60th minute, Kuhns dribbled a ball to the line and got her cross into Bielicke, whose header went right into the goal to give Edwardsville a 4-2 lead. The Tigers had a couple more chances, including a glorious chance In the 75th minute that went awry, as Edwardsville was able to shut down the Kahoks the rest of the way to preserve their 4-2 win.
The Tigers are now 7-6-0 on the season overall, and currently 4-0-0 in the Southwestern Conference. Edwardsville will host O’Fallon on Thursday night at Tiger Stadium with the kickoff coming at 6:30 p.m., and will conclude their Apr. 5 match at Alton that was suspended by rain at halftime with the Tigers trailing 2-0 on Apr. 29.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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