Tigers' Quarterback Dean Williams Leads Edwardsville To 37-7 Win Over Alton

Edwardsville evens football record at 4-4 overall in impressive homecoming victory.

Colin Feeney, Contributing Sports Writer

Oct 20, 2025 2:38 PM Oct 20, 2025 2:51 PM

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EDWARDSVILLE – Quarterback Dean Williams ran threw for two touchdowns, and scored twice himself as Edwardsville’s football team overcame an early score by Alton and comprehensively defeated the Redbirds 37-7 in the final Southwestern Conference game of the season Friday night, Oct. 17, 2025, at Tiger Stadium,

It was also Homecoming night and Senior Night for the Tigers, and in the annual pregame ceremony, the Class of 2026 – Frey, Eric Smith, Devyon Hill-Lomax, Devin Fernandez, Corbin Arendell, Bryan Cox, Yale Weaver, Charlie Houle, Dorian Cochran, Dontrell Smith, Hunter Lading, Craig Kielty, Julian Calloway, Simon Schulte, Lucas Kunz, Roman Janek, Deommi Elijah, Bradley, Bryant, Austin Kunz, Gavin Eggleston, and James McAdams – and their families were honored, saluted, and thanked for their contributions to the Tiger program. In his postgame interview, Tigers coach Kelsey Pickering was very happy with his team’s effort as Edwardsville got back to .500 for the first time this season.

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“The first half was a little bit sloppy,” Pickering said, “and I think we cleaned it up in the second half. Just like I told the kids, I’ll take an ugly win any day of the week. It’s always nice to win, knowing there were things not done correctly. We’ll get back to the drawing board, look at it, watch the film, but yeah, I’m not going to be unhappy about winning a ball game,” he said.

The Tigers have a chance to become playoff-eligible with a road win against St. Louis powerhouse DeSmet Jesuit.

“We’ve talked about it all year, and all week,” Pickering said. “It pretty much started after week three, that we had we had must-win games to make sure we had an opportunity, so we’ve gotten to this point, 4-4, and now, this next game against DeSmet means a whole lot to us. We’ve got to earn our way into the playoffs, and that’s what we want to go and do.”

The Tigers’ running game, led by Rayqwon Wallace, was most effective against the Redbirds, with Williams, Oliver Brown, and Brandon Houston, Jr. also making contributions.

”Our running back did a great job,” Pickering said, “and obviously, that doesn’t happen with the (offensive) line doing their jobs. And so, those are the nice pieces for me, when you get when it clicks. The offensive line doing their job, the clean exchanges, and then the running backs running the ball hard like they ran the ball well tonight. So, it was nice to see.”

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Williams continues to play well as the backup to the injured Weaver.

“That’s the thing we try to tell people,” Pickering said. “It’s hard to put somebody in there when they haven’t been part of the game plan, and he’s our starting free safety. And now, we saw a week ago what happens when we game plan, and he knows what it is, and is comfortable doing it, and this week, more success. We just want to see Dean continue to grow. It’s really been a positive for us.”

The Redbirds took the opening kickoff and drove 69 yards in five plays, climaxing with Cayden Robinson throwing 48 yards to Grant Ely to give Alton an early 7-0 lead. The Tigers cut into the lead on a 29-yard field goal by Lucas Garman, then took the lead for good when Williams threw 10 yards to Wallace for the touchdown to put the Tigres up 10-7. Later in the half, Frey ran a reverse from four yards out for the touchdown that gave Edwardsville a 17-7 halftime lead.

Edwardsville extended the lead in the third quarter on back-to-back possessions, starting with a 32-yard touchdown pass from Williams to Frey, then recovered an on-side kick, and scored again when Willians threw 39 yards to Hill-Lomax for another score, the conversion missed, but Edwardsville holding a 30-7 lead.

The final score came when Williams ran 11 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to give the Tigers the 37-7 win. Alton had one last chance to score a consolation touchdown late in the game, but were stopped by the Edwardsville defense.

The Tigers are now 4-4, and play at DeSmet I the regular season finale next Friday, while the Redbirds are 0-8, and travel to Highland for their regular season finale. Both games kickoff at 7 p.m.

Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.