EDWARDSVILLE - Colt Michael completed a 61-yard touchdown pass to Christian Jones, then Christopher Caldwell caught a two-point conversion pass from Michael with 1:25 left in regulation to give O'Fallon a dramatic 32-31 win over Edwardsville in a week four Southwestern Conference football thriller Friday night at Tiger Stadium.
It was the second year in succession the Panthers have defeated the Tigers and in this game, Edwardsville had leads of 17-0 and 31-17 before O'Fallon rallied to take the win. And whenever the Tigers did something, the Panthers came back with an answer.
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"They're a good football team," said Edwardsville head coach Matt Martin. "We're a good football team. They came out on top. We missed opportunities. I challenged our kids to tackle better this week, we did at times. At times, we didn't."
Martin knows that if the Tigers are going to win over big teams, their tackling must improve. Much of the Panthers' yardage was gained after breaking away from the initial contact by the Edwardsville defense.
"If we're going to beat great teams, we've got to tackle better,' Martin said. "We've gotta do it. There's no defense you can call when you don't tackle well."
Michael created problems for the Tigers all evening, making plays when Edwardsville seemingly had him trapped for sacks.
"He made some nice plays," Martin said. "He kept some drives going with great plays. And that was tackling, too."
Edwardsville quarterback Jake Curry had a great game as well, being able to hit receivers at key times to keep drives alive.
"I thought Jake played well," Martin said. "I think he had one pick or something like that, but I thought he played well, other than that. He made some great reads, ran, threw some good balls. Threw one, hit a guy right in the chest, it was there. put you in field goal range."
O'Fallon head coach Byron Gettis thought that the experience of the Panthers in crucial situations help his team pull out the win.
"We've been in these situations a lot of times," Gettis said. "We take chances, we've got a senior-laden team. When we were down by 14, I started thinking about it, we got the ball, got a big play from Jalen Smith, scored. I was already telling them that if we scored again, we were going for two. I mean, it's a high school game, it's O'Fallon-Edwardsville. In my mind, we were going for the win, no matter what, win, lose or draw."
The play where Caldwell caught the winning two-point pass is something the Panthers work on a lot in their practice sessions.
"Yeah, I mean, we work on those," Gettis said. "We run that play 20 times a week. We put our kids in position during practice, during the off-season, for games like this. And then, the kids execute."
The Panthers came back from 17-0 down in the first half, scoring a late first half touchdown to cut the lead to 17-7 at halftime, then rallied from the 31-17 deficit late to take the win.
"It's a long game," Gettis said. "And like I said, O'Fallon-Edwardsville. And it's going to be like that; the last couple of years, it's been that way. There's been some good games."
Michael's ability to make plays when he was seemingly trapped is a key asset to the O'Fallon attack.
"Colt is a tough quarterback," Gettis said. "One of the best in the area, I would say in the state. Again, last year, maybe it was his first time playing varsity, this year, he's been in big games already. Last year, we lost those games last year. This year, he's poised. That's another year of playing football, getting taught and growing."
The Panthers were able to rally back and make the plays when they needed to to gain the win.
"Just momentum," Gettis said. "I think the guys realized that we were shooting ourselves in the foot early, they believed in each other. Hey, football's a game of inches. They had a drop in our last drive, just a couple of plays that we were able to make some stops. And we've got a great coaching staff, defensive coordinator, coach (Preston) Foehrkalb, made some adjustments and the kids just executed."
The Panthers got the ball first and went on a drive that lasted just over four minutes, with Michael making good plays, Caldwell going on some good runs and Smith making a pair of nice catches. The Tiger defense stiffened and got the ball back on downs, then went on an 11-play, 56-yard drive that climaxed with Kellen Brnfre going six yards around end for the first touchdown, with Tyler Dacus adding the conversion to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead with 2:46 left in the first quarter.
The Tiger defense held again and after a punt, Edwardsville went on a 75-yard march that culminated in a 24-yard field goal by Dacus that extended the lead to 10-0. On the next possession, Edwardsville scored again on a Curry 18-yard pass to De'Shawn Larson that gave the Tigers a 17-0 lead after the convert with 2:18 left in the first half.
The Panthers got their first touchdown on the ensuing possession, as Michael was able to complete passes to Smith and Caldwell ran well, picking up big gains for O'Fallon, Michael threw an eight-yard pass to Jones for a touchdown with 44.3 seconds left in the first half to make it 17-7 for Edwardsville at the half.
The defenses dominated most of the third quarter, with the Panthers going on a drive that resulted in a 22-yard field goal by Brogan Hartman to make it 17-10 with 1:20 left in the third. The Tigers answered right back when Curry connected with Daion Gaston, who made a spectacular catch of a ball that seemingly was behind him and turned it into a 44-yard touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter to give Edwardsville a 24-10 lead.
Back came O'Fallon as Michael hit Smith for a 51-yard touchdown pass with 9:02 to go in regulation to make the score 24-17. The Tigers answered right back with Larson going 21 yards around the right side for the touchdown to make it 31-17 with 6:04 to go.
On the next possession, the Panthers marched right back down, with Michael hitting Smith, with Smith breaking tackles on his way to a 33-yard pickup to the Tiger one. From there, Michael went in with 3:33 left to cut the Edwardsville lead to 31-24.
The Panthers held and got the ball back with 1:45 to go, taking two plays to score. with Jones getting a pass from Michael, broke away from a pair of tackles and going 61 yards for the touchdown with 1:25 left to come within 31-30. The Panthers went for tow and got it when Michael hit a wide-open Caldwell in the end zone to put the Panthers ahead for the first time at 32-31. The O'Fallon defense stopped the Tigers on their final drive to preserve their win.
Edwardsville is now 3-1 on the year and hosts Belleville West next Friday in a 7 p.m. kickoff, while the Panthers are 4-0 and host East St. Louis next Saturday afternoon in a 1 p.m. kickoff.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
