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WOOD RIVER – The East Alton Wood River Oilers football team launched its season Friday night with a scrimmage against the Calhoun Warriors.
This event marked the first year that the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) has permitted high schools to engage in scrimmages under a new format.
The new IHSA guidelines allow teams to participate in a maximum of four separate 12-play segments, comprising two offensive and two defensive segments, with a cap of 48 total plays per level. Special teams plays, such as kickoffs, punts, and field goals, are not permitted. After touchdowns, teams may execute extra point attempts against air, with no defense on the field, and these attempts do not count toward the play limit.
The Oilers, who graduated only three seniors last year, are looking to improve from a challenging 0-9 season. Junior Isaiah Smith, who had his previous season cut short by a broken leg, will be the starting quarterback.
"Our hopes is to be competitive this year and our schedule is tough but we have to play better than last year and we have pretty much the same team coming back and a lot of young guys got experience last year," said Oilers' Head Football Coach Garry Herron.
The Oilers' upcoming schedule is as follows:
- Aug. 30 – at Clinton, 7 p.m.
- Sept. 6 – at Civic Memorial, 7 p.m.
- Sept. 13 – Marquette Catholic, 7 p.m.
- Sept. 20 – Salem, 7 p.m.
- Sept. 27 – at Breese Central, 7 p.m.
- Oct. 4 – Columbia, 7 p.m.
- Oct. 11 – at Freeburg, 7 p.m.
- Oct. 18 – Roxana, 7 p.m.
- Oct. 25 – at Red Bud, 7 p.m.
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