EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville's boys soccer team has accomplished quite a bit over the years.
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But they had never won the Morton Invitational tournament in the years they traveled there.
You can cross that statement off your list now; the Tigers, thanks to the strength of three shutout wins, claimed their first Morton title Saturday with a 2-0 win over Rochester. The Tigers opened the tournament with a 1-0 win over West Aurora on Friday and then blanked Batavia 2-0 in the semifinals on Saturday.
“We had a very good weekend,” said Tiger coach Mark Heiderschied. “Having a younger team, we hadn't scored a lot, but the kids really played well. Getting our first win there, that was really good.”
The Tigers got three clean sheets from Trey Riley, the senior goalkeeper who, in Heiderschied's eyes, came up big when he needed to. “He didn't have a large volume of saves during the tournament, but in every game, he came up with a key save when we needed one,” Heiderschied said. “Trey was a big presence in goal for us and he was really impressive.
“Our back line, too, really was outstanding. They were awesome all weekend and deserve some kudos for how they performed.”
In the opener against West Aurora, a first-half goal from Max Kieffer in the 25th minute was all the Tigers needed to advance to Saturday's semifinal match. Riley turned back all nine shots the Blackhawks took at him.
Saturday's semifinal win over Batavia featured a goal in the 26th minute from Zach Timmerman when he scored off a Hamada Freese corner kick to put EHS up, then Mohammad Hamad scored in the 50th minute off an assist from Alec Mills. Riley had eight saves in that match.
In the final, the Tigers went up 1-0 on a Kieffer penalty kick in the 28th minute after he was brought down attempting to play a free kick. Mills scored the match-clincher in the 64th minute off a pass from Kyle Wright; Riley had three saves in the match.
The Tigers, who face Collinsville in a key Southwestern Conference match on the road Tuesday evening, took their record to 8-0-3 on the season.
