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EDWARDSVILLE – Collinsville kept it close for awhile.
But in the end, Edwardsville managed to wear down the Kahoks thanks to a 20-point third-quarter blitz as the Tigers ran their record to 3-0 (1-0 in the Southwestern Conference) with a 33-7 win at Tiger Stadium Friday night.
In that third term, Edwardsville took advantage of Kahok turnovers in their own territory to set up a pair of touchdowns from Jackson Morrisey and Kendell Davis as well as a 25-yard touchdown pass from Riley Jones to Nathan Kolesa.
“That's one of your goals, to score off the turnovers,” said Tiger coach Matt Martin. “We got the ground game going in the second half; sometimes they're three yards at a time, sometimes they're big plays. It made a big difference for us.”
“We had some tunovers, some miscues, some adversity, we overcame that and I felt good going into the second half,” said Kahok coach Rick Reinhardt. “In the second half, we came out and shot ourselves in the foot a little bit, plus we had some guys who couldn't go (because of injuries).
“We had to put some young guys in there and they weren't quite ready; bottom line is, we took a positive step. We've got to realize we were able to drive the length of the field against one of the better defenses we'll see, so we've got to build on that.”
As far as the turnovers that led to Edwardsville scores, Reinhardt put it simple. “Bottom line is, it's our fault,” he said. “Just some miscues; we've got to teach our kids better.”
Collinsville was able to get the ball down on the Tiger defense in that first half; it culminated with a score on the first play of the second term when Max Lyons punched the ball in from three yards out. Matt Cook made the convert try and it put the Kahoks up 7-0.
Edwardsville responded quickly, getting the ball downfield and in close before Jones called his own number and scored from a yard out, with Riley Patterson's convert tying things up at 7-7. Edwardsville repeated that drive the next time they had the ball, this time calling Jackson Morrisey from a yard out to put in the end zone to give the Tigers the lead. Patterson missed the PAT try, but the Tigers still held a 13-7 lead at the halftime siren.
The Tigers took advantage of an interception to extend the lead with Jones' 25-yard connection to Kolesa to go 19-7 up on Collinsville, then got a 15-yard run from Morrisey to go up 26-7 late in the thrid term and capped the scoring off another turnover when Davis found some daylight and scored from 15 yards out late in the third to go up 33-7.
The Kahoks fell to 0-3 overall and 0-1 in the SWC with the loss. Edwardsville travels to O'Fallon for a 7 p.m. Friday kickoff.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
