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EDWARDSVILLE - After a tough 5-1 loss to the CBC Cadets, the Edwardsville Tigers had a week to prepare for the Gibault Catholic Hawks. Maybe it had to do with some practices in between, but on Wednesday night against the Hawks, the Edwardsville brought their shooting boots.
The Tigers put an astonishing eight goals past Gibault in a dominating 8-2 victory in Edwardsville at the District 7 Sports Complex.
Edwardsville improves to 3-2-1 while Gibault drops to 4-3-2.
“As far as if you want to watch a game that’s pretty, the kids certainly orchestrated some very good goals. The combination play I thought was really quite good,” Edwardsville head coach Mark Heiderscheid said. “We’ve got to be able to come out with passion and try to create some goals. It shows by our right at times how effective we are in the front third,”
Bryce Glisson collected a hat trick and two assists, while Ethan Miracle and Cooper Nolan added braces for themselves. A.J. Sullivan got on the scoresheet as well and mixed in two assists.
“I think we’ve always been that way,” Ethan Miracle said. “Some of the past results haven’t reflected how well we can play and I think tonight was really a saying of how well we can play and how good of a team we can beat.”
The Tigers got off on the right foot early on.
Nine minutes into the match, Sullivan cut inside with his right-foot and finessed a shot toward the top left side of the goal. Gibault goalkeeper, Connor Olson got a hand to the ball, but the force from Sullivan’s shot was too much, and it ended up in the top corner of the net as Edwardsville took a 1-0 lead.
Thirty seconds later, the Hawks forced a save from Tigers keeper, Gabe Noll. Less than a minute later, Glisson was sent through on goal from a long pass on a counter-attack. Glisson got in front of the last Hawks defender to the goal and powered a low shot past Olson to put Edwardsville up 2-0.
“He’s just a ridiculously good player anytime he gets in and around the box,” Heiderscheid said of Glisson.
Glisson quite possibly had an easier chance to get another goal five minutes later as he received a pass in behind the defense a couple of yards from goal. However, Olson made a fantastic left-handed save forcing a corner kick. One minute later, Cooper Nolan found the back of the net by placing the ball correctly into the low right-hand corner of the goal.
“A.J., Bryce, and Ethan are so lethal, and then you got Cooper coming on. He’s crazy difficult to defend. He has such pace and a fantastic shot,” Heiderscheid said. “That’s an awful lot of players, and that’s not naming them all. [Bryce] Broshow and [Seth] Goodman are unbelievable midfielders, so that's good."
With 9.8 seconds left in the half, Glisson scored his second and Edwardsville’s fourth goal to cap the firth half.
Ninety-nine seconds into the second half, Gibault’s Cameron Kincheloe beat new Tigers keeper, Tyler Frolick to give the Hawks some new life down 4-1. However, that would be erased 68 seconds later by a class finish by Ethan Miracle where he volleyed in an unstoppable shot from just outside the 18-yard box.
Less than two minutes later, Miracle found the back of the net again giving Edwardsville a 6-1 lead. Ten minutes later, Glisson and Nolan added two more goals in three minutes. The Hawks scored the last goal of the game with 8:24 by Logan Doerr.
“There were so many chances that were created and a lot of them were fantastic against a pretty dang good team,” Heiderscheid said. “We have a lot on paper that makes us a formidable squad. At this point, it’s trying to be a complete team and getting there. We’re putting some pieces together to move forward.
