With the 20-3 win, the Oilers move to 2-1 on the season while the Eagles fall to 1-1.

BETHALTO – It’s been a long time coming for the East Alton Wood River Oilers’ football program, but this season they are finally putting the pieces together and are now off to a 2-0 start. It’s the first time they have done that in nearly 40 years.

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Head coach Gary Herron said, “It’s been a couple of years in the making, but we’re finally the bigger, stronger team.”

That showed in their 20-3 win over CM Friday night. The Oilers sent some Eagles fans home unhappy, and they pulled off their game plan exquisitely.

They found themselves down 3-0 after a rather sloppy start defensively allowing CM to take the lead off a field goal, but wouldn’t allow them to score after that.

After the score, the Eagles kicked off to EAWR and the Oilers had the ball at CM’s 47-yard line. After a roundabout five-minute drive, senior running back Seth Slayden scored a 12-yard rushing touchdown to take the lead. The extra point was no good, but the Oilers were still up 6-3. They would never lose that lead again.

Wood River scored again with three minutes to go in the first half with another rushing attempt. This time they went for a two-point conversion and were successful. They led 14-3 heading into the locker room.

Only down 11 points at the start of the second half, CM still had plenty of confidence. They shut the Oilers down on their drive and got the ball back on their 20-yard line with 3:31 to go in the third quarter.

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Unfortunately, due to numerous penalties, they weren’t able to come up with anything and had to punt.

“The defense was just out there too long,” CM head coach Rick Reinhart said postgame. He wasn’t happy with some of the mistakes that were happening and said his guys looked downright confused at times.

Reinhart did give the Oilers credit saying that this is the team Wood River has been waiting on for a while now and they’re going to be good.

After the big stop, the Oilers marched back down the field with their running game and found themselves in the red zone yet again. It was another handoff to Slayden who took it home from around 15-yards out. They missed the extra point again but led 20-3 with about a minute left in the third quarter.

CM needed to score on this drive, but they didn’t make it very far until Slayden intercepted the ball at his own 30-yard line. That pretty much sealed the deal as now all the Oilers had to do was run out the clock. They did so successfully and improve to 2-0 on the season.

It feels great being 2-0,” Slayden said after his big game. “Now we just have to focus on next week to be 3-0.”

The Oilers will be looking to get some revenge on Nokomis next week. Wood River lost a close game on the road by a score of 24-20 last season. This year the Oilers host. That game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, September 7th.

CM will play at Roxana next week as both teams will be trying to bounce back from week two losses. That game is also at 7 p.m.

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