CARLINVILLE - A season ago the East Alton-Wood River Oilers took a heavy loss to the Carlinville Cavaliers 76-19 in the first round of the IHSA Class 3A football playoffs. Then 364 days later, the Oilers revisited Carlinville, and the Cavaliers won again, but this time by a much lesser margin.
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The Cavaliers used a 38-0 first half to eliminate the Oilers 51-19 in Carlinville on Friday night.
“I thought we played very well on special teams again this week. That was kinda the tale of the first half,” Carlinville head coach Chad Easterday said. “We had more possessions than they did, which was the difference in the ballgame. We kinda morphed our offense every week, and Wood River took away the throws early, but we were able to hurt them with the inside run. I thought that made a difference too in the ballgame in terms of moving the ball.”
Oilers head coach Gary Herron stated his team’s, “lack of execution” was a big reason why they came up short.
“I thought we had a better chance this year against them. We practiced things all week, and we didn’t do them in the first half for whatever reason. A lot of the looks [Carlinville] gave us we knew they were going to give us and we practiced all week long,” Herron said. “The communication wasn’t there. We pretty much handed them 19 points on a silver platter, and you can’t do that to a team like this.”
Carlinville kicked off, got a three-and-out, and scored on their first play from scrimmage on an 84-yard touchdown pass from Jarret Easterday to Zach Dixon. The Cavies recovered an onside kick, but the Oilers made a stand and turned them over on downs at midfield, however, Carlinville would hold the Oilers off on the following drive.
That’s when the Cavies run game came alive.
Tucker Hughes scored his first of two touchdowns with 7:13 to go in the first quarter on a 25-yard burst and Ethan Wallace scored from 5-yards out on the ensuing drive with 5:55 left in the first frame to give Carlinville a 19-0 lead. Hughes booted a 24-yard field goal, to put the Cavies up 22-0, which was followed by sophomore Colton DeLong’s 2-yard touchdown run and a 50-yard touchdown pass from Easterday to Josh Hinzman.
“These guys were going to score, I mean we’re not going to shut these guys out by any means,” Herron said. “The difference is not allowing them three-to-four-to-five-to-six big plays like last year, and that was our emphasis this week. We know they’re a great football team, we just have to limit how they score and let them run the clock when they’re on offense as well.”
East Alton-Wood River’s offense came alive in the second half. Zach Womack scored three touchdowns for the Oilers on runs of 20, 15, and 58 yards. He would end the season with 1,311 yards, and senior fullback eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark as well at 1,009.
Carlinville will take on Decatur St. Teresa or Marshall next week Saturday at 2 p.m. for a second-round matchup.
“We had one more win this year than last year. These 12 seniors have meant a lot to the program. I couldn’t have asked for a better set of kids. They should hold their heads high,” Herron said. “This community and our school haven’t had anything like this in a while, especially continued success two years in a row. I’m super proud of the kids, and I love those guys to death.”
“I’m happy with the year we had.”
