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GRANITE CITY – A first-half goal from Rileigh Kuhns and tight defense throughout were two key things Edwardsville needed to defeat Granite City 1-0 in Saturday's rain-delayed IHSA Class 3A Granite City Regional final at Gene Baker Field.
The win sent the Tigers to a Normal Community Sectional semifinal match against Belleville West, who ousted Collinsville 2-1 in a penalty-kick shootout in the O'Fallon Regional final. The match will be played Tuesday at a venue to be announced in the area, with the winner going to the sectional final in Normal at 6 p.m. Friday.
The Tigers advanced to the sectional at 13-4-3 on the year, while the Warriors were eliminated at 12-6-3.
Kuhns' goal came at the half-hour and was enough to give EHS the win. Regan Windau recorded the clean sheet for the Tigers.
"Riley made a great outside shot to win the game," Edwardsville head coach Abby Federmann said. "She has been a starter nearly every game and is one of our leading scorers and comes up with clutch goals. She scored and we held Granite City off for over 50 minutes. The goal was at a perfect time."
Capturing a regional championship over rival Granite City in the Warrior home confines was exciting, Federmann said.
"The Southwestern Conference has been so competitive this year," she said. "We trained 10 days to get ready for this and the girls showed true grit with the postponement Friday, then the heat and everything else and came out successful. We will play Belleville West on Tuesday in the sectional, but I think today really gave us momentum."
Coach Federmann in her first season, guided the Tigers to a regional title in strong competition and now has her sights set on a victory over another rival SWC on Tuesday.
