Loftus, Matthews Each Have Two Goals As Edwardsville Defeats Alton 7-1, Move On To Class 3A Sectional
EDWARDSVILLE – Logan Loftus and John Matthews each had a brace (two goals) as Edwardsville struck five times in the second half to defeat Alton 7-1 to win their own IHSA Class 3A boys’ soccer regional in the final played Friday afternoon at Tiger Stadium.
Edwardsville held a 2-1 lead at halftime but scored right at the start of the second half and pulled away to win the regional title and advance to next week’s Normal Community sectional. It was a very clinical win for the Tigers.
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“I like that,” Edwardsville head coach Mark Heiderscheid said. “Actually, the finishes were kind of clinical. That’s a good soccer term for my Saturday mornings for the (English Premier League),” he said with a smile.
Heiderscheid praised the Redbirds for their effort throughout the match.
“I think, on the surface, I would say yes, had it been, perhaps, earlier,” Heiderscheid said, “but I think it was done early in the second half. I think, first, you really have to respect Alton. It’s a case where they had some injuries early, and there were some times they were without Braden Schrimpf earlier in the season, and so, really, their record’s s even a little misleading for what they bring to the table. They had a number of very good games that they can certainly hold their hat on to. And then, there’s a good group of seniors for them, (Hayden) Batchelor does a great job for them in midfield, same thing with (Jake) Lombardi, the same thing with (Brayden) Decker, and then, obviously Schrimpf is just a stud of a player that sits there in the center back; he’s one of the best players in southern Illinois. And so, really, I think dealing with that, I thought we did a good job. We got several chances early, didn’t capitalize.
“And then, when we needed to, we knocked in two very clinical finishes,” Heiderscheid continued. “And then, I think we had chances, what was very close. (Jakob) Doyle has one that goes wide, we have one where (Brennan) Weller gets a couple of good strikes; it just doesn’t go through, again it goes wide. And I think ‘oy’. I think someone chunked one over, and so it was like ‘darn.’ And then, of all things, sure enough, they were able to strike a ball, to put the ball down on the ground, just dump it in the box, and make sure a goal. I think our goalkeeper (Tyler Frolik), it pops out for him, the ball just sits there in the box for a scrum, they get a goal, and the next thing you know, it’s like all momentum for Alton, because at that point, the game gets to be more kind of more of a scrap, and that’s not what we really needed it to be.”
Doyle restored the two-goal cushion seconds into the second half, and from there, it was all Edwardsville.
“We talk second half, and I thought, really, we came out, it took a bit, but we started knocking the ball again as we want to do, and then, Doyle gets the early goal there, and then, I thought we did a good job. To be fair to Alton, we have a three-goal lead at that point, but they had to go to their second string goalkeeper (Brad Taul), and that’s going to be pretty tough. But having said that, it’s like, still, we didn’t allow many chances the other direction, and really, I thought we just continued to create chance, and chance. So, either way, I think we’re doing a very good job of keeping it, and that was good.”
Matthews got his brace late in the match, and it’s a testament to his character and personality. It was his third goal off the bench in the last two matches.
“John’s just an absolute gem of a kid,” Heiderscheid said. “He’s a kid that’s happy, no matter what all season, it’s just like he tries, like, ‘I can play center midfield, I can play in the back, I can play front, I’ll take a penalty kick;’ he’s one of our penalty kick shooters as well. And it’s like, you know what? We’re going to stick him upfront, because he’s got pace, his character is just beyond reproach, and you know, unfortunately, we’ve got two guys in Cooper Nolan, who’s one of the best players in the state, and Brennan Weller, who’s just so good, kind of (Connor) Kelley is, kind of scored a number of goals, did the other day as well. And so is good.
“But without a doubt, John Matthews offers another dimension,” Heiderscheid also said, “in almost the same way that Tony Agwuedu does, in that they come off, whether it’s he, it’s J.T. (Watson), they just have great pace coming into the game. And John has an absolute rifle of a shot. So I know it’s late in game, but without question, he does add something when he goes in there.”
The Redbirds gave up a pair of early goals, but battled back to make it 2-1 at halftime, and the team kept battling throughout the entire 80 minutes.
“We gave up two really early goals on a couple of mental errors,” said Alton head coach Nick Funk, “leaving the back post wide open, ball-watching. So we had to scrape back on that. In the last 15 to 20 minutes in the first half, we really took it to them, momentum was in our favor going into half. And then, that momentum was stripped away within, I think, the first minute when they got that third goal. And not only did it take our momentum, but it took our goalie (Owen Macias) out of the game and put in a pretty bad injury on one of our center (midfielders), when they ran through the middle like that. So, struggling to stay focused after your keeper goes down, and one of your center mids is banged up pretty bad is pretty tough to come back from.”
That the Redbirds kept on battling is how the team has played throughout the season.
“These kids have fought all year,” Funk said. “You can’t hold that against them. They always play hard, and they always give everything they’ve got. The chips just didn’t fall in our favor today, so that’s tough.”
Looking back at the 2019 season, Funk pointed out a number of positives, including one that happened on Wednesday night.
“Beating Quincy’s a big one,” Funk said, referring to the Redbirds’ 2-1 win over the Blue Devils in Wednesday’s semifinal, avenging a loss in the same fixture the year before, “especially in the first round of regionals to avenge what we did last year in regionals, beating Belleville East twice, beating Belleville West. We played hard fought matches the whole year. Our biggest loss was 7-2 to Rochester, and I think we had three starters out of that game, so that was kind of a moot point, but the rest of the games, we’ve played hard and played well.”
It didn’t take long for the Tigers to have a chance, as Weller had a shot in the opening seconds, but the ball was cleared off the line by the Redbird defense. Both Nolan and Weller had some good chances in the opening 10 minutes, but Weller’s shot went into the side netting, and Nolan was stopped by Macias. But in the 13th minute, Weller fed Loftus with a good ball, and Loftus tapped it home to give the Tigers the lead on 1-0.
Edwardsville doubled the lead in the 19th minute when Nolan’s original shot was saved, and Adam Sneed was there to claim the rebound and slot the ball home to put the Tigers up 2-0.
The Redbirds pulled to within 2-1 in the 28th minute when, off a free kick from distance, Frolik fumbled the ball, and a scramble developed, with Schrimpf finding the loose ball and knocking it into the roof of the net to give Alton some momentum. The Redbirds and Tigers did have some other chances but were denied as the halftime whistle blew with Edwardsville up 2-1 at the interval.
It only took the Tigers a few seconds at the start of the second half to regain their two-goal cushion, as in the 41st minute, Weller got a cross into Loftus, who collided with Macias in the box, but was able to get the ball into the net, giving Edwardsville a 3-1 lead. Macias was injured on the play and was replaced by Taul. It later became 4-1 in the 47th minute when Nolan got a great cross from Sneed and chipped it home to give the Tigers a three-goal lead
Kelley made it 5-1 in the 62nd minute when he broke through a pair of Redbird defenders and slotted the ball home, then Matthews got his first goal in the 74th minute, taking a great through ball and putting the ball in the back of the net to make it 6-1. And in the 80th and final minute, Matthews took another good through ball, but his original shot was saved. Matthews stayed with the play and poked home the rebound for the final 7-1 score.
The Redbirds end their season at 6-11-0 but return many good players for the 2020 season. Funk is very optimistic about the program’s future.
“We know we bring back our starting forward, our starting keeper,” Funk said, “and we have several juniors that play throughout the field as well. Our younger programs have done well recently, and so, just see who can step up and make an impression on us in the offseason. I’m just proud of these guys, and it’s always a bummer to lose your last game, but technically, only one team gets to win their last one, so I’m proud of them. I hope they can keep achieving in life the same way they did on the field today.”
The Tigers improve to 18-4-1 and advance to the Normal Community sectional, where they will play Saturday’s O’Fallon regional winner between the Panthers and Collinsville in the semifinal match at Belleville East Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. Heiderscheid expects a very good match from both sides.
“I think in both cases, it’ll be good,” Heiderscheid said. “This year, the second-best team all year long has been O’Fallon. They were the ones who took second in the (Southwestern) conference, and really decidedly so. They’ve been the team that, if you look at record, Collinsville is very misleading, with a 13-8 record. You look there, and thinking you knew they were going to be, for them, down this year. They were down for a number of years, and then all of a sudden, they’ve picked up the last several years, and they’ve been very much better, one of the best teams, I think, in southern Illinois; I think you have to say that. And then, O’Fallon has always been the second team in the conference for years. We’ve had to play them in the sectional, I couldn’t tell you how many times. I mean, at one point, seven or eight years in a row. It was always O’Fallon; it was always Edwardsville. So I think, either way, I think both add a different look.”Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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Dan Brannan also contributed to this story
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