ALTON – For those who haven't seen him yet, Edwardsville's Dionte Rodgers is emerging as a go-to back for the Tiger offense.
Rodgers 211 yards rushing and three touchdown runs of 1, 12 and 60 yards – the 60-yard run making him the program's single-season touchdown leader with 19 on the year – as Edwardsville went to 7-1 on the year, 5-1 in the Southwestern Conference, with a 44-6 win over Alton at Public School Stadium Friday night. The Redbirds fell to 0-8 on the season, 0-6 in the league.
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“When he got to the second and third level, he made people miss and he broke tackles,” said Tiger coach Matt Martin. “He's special and he's a good person.”
When asked what impresses him the most of Rodgers, Martin said “I'm impressed how he holds on to the ball, knock on wood. We don't seem to have a lot of fumbling issues – he just does a good job.”
Rodgers not only has speed to burn, he's also strong and to bring down. “He's got a low center of gravity,” Martin said. “He's strong; he's not very big, but he's strong for his size. He does a good job.”
While Martin has been happy with how Rodgers has performed, what he's looking for the rest of the way is continuing to get better. “I'm hoping we're getting better; that's our goal, to improve our effort and improve our execution. We want to get better every week.
“No disrespect to Alton, but it's a game everyone is telling you should win and sometimes it's hard to come out and execute and stay focused. Our kids did that.”
“We're learning every week,” said Redbird coach Eric Dickerson. “Everyone in this conference has strong runners; we just need to get stronger physically.”
One thing that has plagued the Redbirds this year is a quick start that doesn't get sustained; the Tigers got out of the gates with a quick field goal and touchdown from Brenden Dickmann that the Redbirds held Edwardsville to in the opening term before a four-touchdown-in-four-possession blitz broke the game open.
“It's always something,” Dickerson said. “That opening drive, they were marching and marching and we made a stand; it's 3-0, we get the ball back and we miss a couple of open receivers. I'm not saying that changes the game, but it changes the momentum at the time. Not to take anything away from Edwardsville; they're very technically sound, they're able to get up to our linebackers and shield them from getting to where they need to be.”
The highlight of the game came in the second term, when Kendall Abdur-Rahman took a handoff, found a hole and took off to the races for an 89-yard touchdown run that broke the Redbird backs.
Alton's only scored came about midway through final term when Jonathan Bumpers hauled in a Taylor Price touchdown pass from 27 yards.
The Tigers host Granite City in their Senior Night game at 7 p.m. Oct. 21, while the Redbirds travel to Belleville West for their season finale.
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