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ALTON - Edwardsville and Alton lined up against each other at Alton's Public School Stadium Friday night, knowing that much was at stake in their Southwestern Conference football showdown.
Both teams battled. Both teams fought. Both teams had big plays.
In the end, the Tigers' Kendall Abdur-Rahman came up with one of those big plays, taking off on a 47-yard dash to the Redbird end zone with 9:47 left in the third quarter that put EHS on top, then coming up big on both sides of the ball when they needed to to take a 20-17 win over the Redbirds on AHS' Homecoming night.
The win sent the Tigers to 2-3 overall on the season and 2-1 in the SWC with four games to go; Alton dropped to 2-3 overall, 1-2 in the league.
Alton held a 17-14 lead at halftime on the Tigers. “I felt like they were more physical than us in the first half and we weren't tackling very well,” said Tiger coach Matt Martin. “We lost the turnover battle again – I don't know if we're a good enough team to lose the turnover battle like that and win too many ballgames.”
Once Edwardsville got the lead, the Tigers had to overcome a series of mistakes and miscues that wound up costing them touchdowns twice on a drive in the third quarter before losing a fumble in the end zone on that same drive, but the Tigers persevered and found ways to keep the Redbirds off the scoreboard when they had to down the stretch before giving the ball to Antonio Thigpen Jr. to help drain the clock in the late going.
“They (Thigpen and Abdur-Rahman) did a good job,” Martin said. “I was proud of Thigpen; Thigpen really battled – he fought for some extra yards.”
Alton's sophomore quarterback, Andrew Jones, helped keep the Redbirds in the game with some plays when the Redbirds needed them, but Edwardsville's defense came up with the stops down the stretch. “You have to get pressure,” Martin said. “They have a big offensive line – those kids are big. It's hard to get to the quarterback; they've got a quick passing game, whether it's screens or slants or hitches – it's tough to get to him.”
“No loss is easy,” said Redbird coach Eric Dickerson, “but we were competitive, we fought throughout and never gave up; it says a lot about the character of our team right now. It was a battle of defenses and I thought they both did pretty well tonight – our team did a great job fighting and never giving up. That says a lot about those kids in the locker room right now.
“It was a Southwestern Conference game – it's a grind and we've had two in a row. Nothing gets easy next week, but we're going to get ready and go compete next week too; the season for us is a long way from over. Our kids are constantly getting better – you could see it in their faces; this one hurt.”
The Tigers took the opening kickoff and drove down the field, Thigpen punching it in from three yards out to put EHS up 7-0 following the Devin Parker convert; Alton answered immediately with a nine-yard touchdown pass from Jones to Jonathan Bumpers that tied it up following a Colin Lombardi conversion. Edwardsville then went down the field for another score, with Abdur-Rahman scoring from 13 yards out with 9:19 left in the second period for a 14-7 lead.
That lead was short-lived when, after the initial kickoff went out of bounds, Alton elected to have Edwardsville kick off again; the ball went to Kevin Caldwell, who took the ball at the five, went to his right, found a hole and sprinted 95 yards for the tying touchdown before Lombardi connected on a 25-yard field goal with 34.2 seconds left in the half to send both teams to the long break with Alton holding a 17-14 lead.
On Edwardsville's first possession of the second half, Thigpen got the ball past midfield before Abdur-Rahman called his own number, found an opening and sprinted 47 yards for what proved to be the winning touchdown; Parker missed the convert, but the Tigers had a 20-17 lead that they found ways to hold on to the remainder of the game, especially down the stretch when EHS needed to keep the clock going.
“We were able to get some first downs there at the end,” Martin said. “That was huge for us to keep the clock running; Kendall had a scramble and he stayed in-bounds – that was a smart play by him (when he recovered a bad snap and scrambled around before finding positive yardage).”
The Tigers know that they have to run the table to be assured of a playoff spot this season. “That's our goal,” Martin said. “We'll have tough ones coming up here – we've just got to try to improve on what we can and hopefully we can win many more.”
The Panthers host O'Fallon next week, while the Redbirds travel to Belleville East; both games kick off at 7 p.m.
