Jackson Secures Victory Over Edwardsville in Thrilling 33-28 Game

EDWARDSVILLE – The Edwardsville High football team staged a gallant comeback from a 26-7 halftime deficit, but two returns for touchdowns in the first half proved to be their undoing, as the Tigers fell in a game played Friday night at Tiger Stadium.

Edwardsville is now 0-3 for the first time since 2017, but the Tigers played well and hard against the Indians, a traditional southeast Missouri power, but the two return touchdowns – a 62-yard interception return, and a 100-yard kickoff return – in the first half proved difficult to overcome.

“Well, we lost again,” said Edwardsville head coach Kelsey Pickering, “so not real good."

There were still good things that happened during the game, and Pickering was very happy with that.

“You know what? We came out, we played hard, we played more physical,” Pickering said. “We can’t overcome penalties. And so, that’s the part we still have to clean up, because we can play a clean game, and play physical. I think the future’s bright, but we’ve got to still continue to clean up mistakes.”

Pickering agreed that the two touchdowns in the first half to haunt the Tigers, but also knows the conference season begins next week, and it’s an opportunity to help turn the season around.

“Anytime we start conference play, the goal is to win the conference championship,” Pickering said. “And so, that’ what we’ve got to set our minds to, turn the page. We’ll get there tomorrow, and it’ll be on to conference play.”

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Jackson also played well in the game, and Pickering gave the Indians tremendous credit.

“Oh, yea, I love Jackson,” Pickering said. “They’re such a good program, that’s why I want to play them. They do things the right way, they get after it, they play physical, they play hard. It was just a good game tonight, and unfortunately, we ended up on the wrong side of it. But yeah, I’ll give Jackson all the credit in the world.”

The Indians took the opening kickoff and drove down the field 80 yards, getting key first downs along the way, overcoming a pair of holding penalties, and climaxed the drive with 5:47 left in the opening quarter, when quarterback Drew Parsons found Kamden Brockmire with a 31-yard scoring pass, but missed the extra point on a bad nap to go ahead 6-0.

The Tigers’ first possession was going well, but a pass went through the hand of a receiver and into the hand of Brock Reagan, who took the interception back 62 yards for another touchdown, and the Tigers found themselves trailing 13-0 with three minutes left in the opening period.

The Indians held on the next Edwardsville possession, but later in the second quarter, after the Tiger defense held, quarterback Yale Weaver hit Devyon Hill-Lomax from 12 yards for a touchdown that cut the Jackson lead to 13-7. On the ensuing kickoff, Memphis Mattox took the ball back 100 yards for a touchdown that made the score 19-7 for the Indians after a two-point convert..

Late in the first half, Jackson scored again on a seven-yard touchdown pass to give the Indians a 36-7 lead at halftime. The Tigers came out of the gate in the second half pumped up, and on the first possession, Oliver Brown climaxed a drive by going in from one yard out to cut the lead to 26-144. The Indians countered on their first possession of the half by going down the field 57 yards, with Aiden Sander going in from five yards out to give the Indians a 33-14 lead.

The Tigers started the comeback bid on the next possession, with Weaver carrying the ball most of the way, going in from 11 yards out to cut the lead to 333-21. In the fourth, Weaver threw 17 yards to Devin Fernandez for a touchdown with under six minutes to go to cut the Indian lead to 33-28. After a magnificent stand by the Tiger defense, Edwardsville got the ball back with 3:14 left, and facing a fourth-and-long situation after back-to-back sacks, Gavin Frey made a clutch catch of a Weaver pass for a first down, but on the next play, an interception killed the drive, and the Indians ran out the clock giving them a 33-28 win.

Jackson is now 3-0 and hosts Famington next Friday, while Edwardsville is now 0-3 and starts Southwestern Conference play at home next week against Belleville West. Kickoff times for both games will be 7 p.m.

Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.