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FRANKFURT - Edwardsville's football squad faced its most difficult opponent yet in the Lincoln-Way East Griffins Saturday night and lost 50-14 in the IHSA Class 8A Quarterfinals in Frankfurt.
Three consecutive turnovers in the first quarter by the Edwardsville Tigers gave the reigning state champion Lincoln-Way East Griffins a head start that proved too much to overcome.
“It allows [Lincoln-Way East] to jump on you. It’s what they do,” Edwardsville head coach Matt Martin said of the three first quarter turnovers. “Ball security is priority No. 1, but you gotta give them some credit. They do that to a lot of teams. So it’s either taught, or they have a knack for it. We actually did some good things, but with turnovers, they just overwhelm you. They were very, very good you gotta tip your cap.”
LWE, who ended the regular season as the No. 1 team in Illinois, improves to 12-0 and has now won 26 consecutive games. They will travel to face the No. 19 seed Loyola Academy Ramblers next Saturday.
“[Matt Martin] is a class act and one of the best coaches in the state hands down every year. Awesome program,” Lincoln-Way East head coach Rob Zvonar said. “We’re proud of our guys for getting the takeaways, but it could’ve been a different game if that wouldn’t have occurred. Overall we capitalized on those errors and got off to a good start.”
The first quarter was a takeaway fest.
After stopping Edwardsville on their first possession, Lincoln-Way East quarterback, Jack Baltz was intercepted by Ethan Young inside Griffins territory. However, LWE replied with an interception of their own by Kenny Palmer.
Shortly after Baltz, an Illinois State commit found six-foot-four Jackson Ritter in the back of the end zone for an eight-yard touchdown pass.
On the Tigers, next possession, Abdur-Rahman on a designed quarterback keeper went up the middle, broke a tackle and cut past two more defenders, but a hit jarred the football out of his hands. Mike Manning’s caught the fumble in mid-air at the 35 and returned it inside the Edwardsville ten-yard line. Griffins running back Devon Williams made it 13-0 on a three-yard rushing touchdown.
Dylan Shelton recovered a fumble at the Edwardsville 19-yard line, and Williams found the end zone again with a two-yard score on a fourth down and goal with 2:29 left in the first quarter.
After a 20-yard field goal conversion by Dominic Dzioban, the Tigers offense came alive.
Abdur-Rahman hit Johnson on a screen pass that brought Edwardsville down to the LWE 23-yard line. On the next play, Abdur-Rahman called his number, picked up good blocking and jogged into the end zone for a 23-yard score. The Tigers trailed 23-7 with 5:15 left in the first half.
“We didn’t plan on stopping [Abdur-Rahman], but knew to have a shot tonight we had to control and contain him a little bit,” Zvonar said. “If you key too much on him then guys like [Johnson] can beat you. Overall I thought our guys ran to the ball and took good angles against an elite player like [Abdur-Rahman].
The Griffins responded with two straight touchdown passes from Baltz to give LWE a 37-7 halftime lead.
“I thought we did a good job of defending against the run,” Martin said. “They couldn’t run the ball early, but they made plays in the passing game, and we couldn’t get pressure on them. Later on, I think our kids got frustrated and weren’t reading their keys and they big-played us in the passing game. They got players up and down the lineup.”
Williams would score his third touchdown of the game in the second half, and the Griffins added one more in the fourth quarter on a touchdown pass from Kyle Quinn to Blaine Gorman.
The final score came from an Abdur-Rahman 13-yard pass to senior Lavontas Hariston with 21 seconds to go in the game.
Edwardsville season ends at 8-4 and graduates one of their best senior classes given what they’ve been able to achieve in the postseason throughout their careers.
“They’ve been to quarterfinals or better the last three years. Not a lot of teams can claim that. I’m proud of these kids,” Martin said.
Chris Rhodes also contributed to this story.
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