WOOD RIVER — The East Alton-Wood River football team has enjoyed success as the season reached its halfway point Friday night. In a 34-0 win over Metro East Lutheran-Madison, the Oilers scored on their first four possessions in the opening term, then saw the defense carry the load in preserving a win that improved the Oilers to 3-2.
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And that’s just fine with Oiler junior quarterback Justin Englar. As is his nature, Englar passed around the praise to his teammates.
“It was great,” Englar said in a postgame interview. “(Zach) Womack came out with a big spark, and the big guys up front really did a good job, and our defense really helped out with the shutout.”
Junior running back Gabe Grimes also contributed to the win with a big game rushing, and Englar was quick to credit him as well.
“They were shutting us down a little on the outside, and he made a big burst up the middle throughout the whole game,” Englar said. “It was nice.”
There was a scary moment in the fourth quarter when Englar collided knee to knee with a Knights player on the sidelines after a nice run. He was taken out of the game as a precautionary measure.
“It’s a little sore right now, but I’ll be alright,” Englar said.
The Oilers face a tough opponent next week in Pawnee, and Englar knows the Oilers will need to be ready to go.
“We’ve got to come out and play hard,” Englar said. “Pawnee’s a good team; hopefully our big guys up front and our defense, we all do our jobs and we come out with the victory.”
And with four weeks left in the regular season, Englar will continue to focus on the task at hand each week, a philosophy that has served the Oilers very well in 2016.
“I just hope we play hard, and hopefully come out with victories,” Englar said. “We’ll just go one game at a time.”Madelaine Gerard also contributed to this story.
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