Edwardsville-Alton clash in Week 8 for annual SWC rivalry game

ALTON - Two area Southwestern Conference teams will be taking each other on in a Week 8 clash as Edwardsville travels to Alton's Public School Stadium for a 7 p.m. Friday game against the Alton Redbirds.

The Tigers go into this week's contest coming off a 30-7 win over Belleville West last week with a mark of 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the SWC; the Redbirds come off a 41-27 loss at Granite City (who the Tigers play to fnish out the regular season next week) that dropped them to 0-7 overall, 0-5 in the league.

“They have some really good athletes,” said Tiger coach Matt Martin. “They're as talented as anyone out there and have some good skill-position players with big-play potential.”

“They're a good team,” Redbird coach Eric Dickerson said of the Tigers. “It's always a tough assignment every week in the Southwestern Conference. We've had a good week of practice; we'll have to execute well and play four quarters.

“They've got some really good weapons and good skill-position players; we're going to have to get out there and get some stops.”

Among those weapons for the Tigers are sophomore running back Deonte Rodgers, who has run for 902 yards on the season and scored 16 touchdowns; quarterback Brenden Dickmann can be a threat as well, having run for 264 yards on the season, while senior Daval Torres has 186 yards on the ground himself while having caught 15 Dickmann passes for 145 yards.

In last week's loss to the Warriors, the Redbirds had fallen behind 21-0 before clawing their way back into the game to forge a tie at the half before Granite City took over and went on to get the win.

“We've got some young kids who are making plays,” Dickerson said. “Being at home will be good; having the Redbirds' Nest (the student cheer squad) behind us and the fan support means a lot to us.

“It'll be the last home game for our seniors (Alton finishes the season next week at Belleville West) as well.”

“The main thing we want to do is keep focusing on getting better every week,” Martin said.

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