EDWARDSVILLE - Clayton Lakatos took the opening kickoff back for a touchdown, and scored later in the first half, while Jake Curry threw five touchdown passes as Edwardsville built up a 48-0 halftime lead en route to a 56-8 win over Alton in the Tigers' homecoming game Friday night at Tiger Stadium.
The win ran Edwardsville's record to 6-0 and solidified the team's spot in the upcoming IHSA playoffs, which begins the weekend of Oct. 27-28.
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The Tigers got off to an incredible start when Lakatos took the opening kickoff back 85 yard for the opening touchdown that gave Edwardsville a 7-0 lead just 15 seconds into the game. On their first possession, the Tigers lost three touchdown plays due to penalties, with the drive ending on a missed 32-yard field goal by Nate Loftus. Edwardsville made up for it on the next possession when Curry hit Michael Hedges from 48 yards out to double the lead to 14-0. Curry later hit Zach Williams with a 12-yard touchdown strike to make the score 21-0 with less than three minutes left in the first quarter.
A 35-yard touchdown pass from Curry to Kaylon Bursey made the score 28-0 with 1:55 left in the first quarter, and in the second quarter, the Tigers and Redbirds exchanged turnovers, but the Redbirds couldn't move the ball, punting in back to the Tigers. At the end of the drive, Curry passed four yards to Kellen Brnfre for another score that made it 35-0.
Late in the quarter, Curry hit Joey DeMare from 21 yards out to make it 42-0, then on the next play from scrimmage after the kickoff, Jaiden Vonner took an interception back 16 yards for a touchdown that made the halftime score 49-0, triggering the second half running clock rule.
In the third quarter, Devyon Hill-Lomax returned a punt 88 yards for another touchdown, the fourth punt return for a touchdown in the last five weeks for Edwardsville, to make it 56-0. Near the end of the fourth quarter, Alton got down to the Tigers' goal line on a bit of razzle-dazzle when Riley Smith hit Jamari Rounds with a pass good for 47 yards, and two plays later, Rounds went into the end zone from two yards out, with the two-point conversion pass to make the final score 56-8.
Alton is now 1-5 on the year and hosts East St. Louis next Friday at Public School Stadium, while Edwardsville goes on the road to Belleville East next Friday, both games kicking off at 7 p.m.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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