Edwardsville confronts rain, wet conditions, blanks O'Fallon 19-0
EDWARDSVILLE – Rainy weather affected Edwardsville football for the third time in the season's first four weeks Friday night in Edwardsville.
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At least this time, the Tigers were able to play their scheduled Southwestern Conference home opener with O'Fallon to completion at Tiger Stadium, the Tigers overcoming the adverse conditions to defeat the Panthers 19-0, thanks to two Brenden Dickmann touchdown passes to Dionte Rodgers and Nathan Kolesa and a 14-yard touchdown run in the final quarter for Dickmann.
“I’m happy” that the game was able to be played to conclusion, said Tiger coach Matt Martin.
“The rain sure made it interesting,” Dickmann said. “Obviously, the last few games, anytime we got any type of rain, we got canceled and had to play the next day. Getting to play in the rain and play a whole game was a big bonus.
“We were dreading having to come back tomorrow because we wanted to get the game over with tonight; we'd been preparing all week for it.”
The wet conditions did affect the approach to the game. “It being wet does have an effect on the whole game,” Dickmann said. “We expect to run it more than put it in the air; Dionte got more touches than we probably planned on. We just had to pound it down.”
Holding on to a wet ball was a difficult task; Dickmann fumbled the ball twice. “With my two fumbles, it was very difficult (holding on to the ball),” Dickmann said. “They were completely on me; it was my fault.”
Dickmann was instrumental in all three Tiger scores; he found Rodgers (who had 149 yards rushing on the night) on a 20-yard touchdown pass in the second term to put Edwardsville up 7-0 following a Riley Patterson convert. O'Fallon made a move on the Tigers in the closing stages of the second term, finding themselves knocking on the door, but the Tiger defense drove them back and facing a fourth-and-goal from the Tiger 10, tried to salvage something with a 27-yard Brooks Hackney field-goal attempt.
Edwardsville had other ideas; the Tiger defense drove in and blocked the attempt to keep the score at 7-0 at the half. In the third term, Dickmann extended the lead to 13-0 when he hit Nathan Kolesa on a 16-yard touchdown pass with 5:30 left in the period; the convert attempt went awry when the snap was mishandled.
Dickmann sealed the game when he scrambled 14 yards for a touchdown with 4:37 left in the final term; the convert attempt again went awry.
The Tigers took their record to 4-0 overall, 2-0 in the SWC, while the Panthers dropped to 1-3 overall, 0-2 in the league. Edwardsville travels to Belleville East for a 7 p.m. game Sept. 23, then hosts East St. Louis Sept. 30.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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Dan Brannan also contributed to this story
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