Collinsville, Ill – Friday night, the Edwardsville High School football team scored exactly 48 points against Collinsville for the third straight year and shutout the Kahoks for the second straight year

The Kahoks take the field / Photo by John Layton

According to Head Coach John Blaylock, the Kahoks (1-4 overall, 1-2 SWC) struggled most on the offensive and defensive lines Friday evening.

“They really exposed our sophomore offensive linemen,” Blaylock said. “As much as anything, those three kids, they grew up a little bit tonight.”

Collinsville kept the game close in the first half. After two Edwardsville touchdowns in the first quarter and a field goal early in the second, the two teams headed to the locker room with the Tigers leading 17-0.

The Kahoks had a chance to get on the scoreboard with less than three minutes remaining in the first half.

Their first two plays of the drive were rushes for six and seven yards, respectively. Senior running back Jamal Wellmaker followed up with a 20-yard rush that saw him run toward the Edwardsville sideline before reversing field and finding a hole.

After that, Collinsville rushed for no gain and threw an incomplete pass before junior quarterback Jordan Reichert was sacked on fourth down.

Blaylock said it was still a competitive game and the defense played well up to that point, but he was not pleased with the second half.

“I thought we wore down. We made an awful lot of mistakes,” Blaylock said.

On the positive side of things, Blaylock said he was sure most of the mistakes were physical ones.

“Our lineman [were] going backward into our own backfield, unable to give our quarterback much time,” Blaylock said.

Blaylock said he also saw some positives from Jordan Reichert and junior fullback Zach Hammel-Brown.

“I thought Reichert threw a few pretty nice footballs tonight,” Blaylock said. “Zach Hammel-Brown came down with one or two. He’s not our typical receiver. On the plus side, that was a good thing.”
Reichert finished the game 4-of-14 with 51 yards. On the other side, the Tigers (4-1 overall, 3-0 Southwestern Conference) were led offensively by senior quarterback Dan Marinko. He finished the game 16-of-26 and 224 yards passing, as well as three passing touchdowns.

Blaylock said Edwardsville has proven it has a great defense game in and game out.

“Offensively, we didn’t get much going,” Blaylock said. “Everything we could throw at them, they were stopping.”

It all came down to the match-up between the teams’ lines, where Edwardsville dominated offensively and defensively.

“I do think in the trenches, they were able to start getting a push, and we weren’t able to get a push back,” Blaylock said.

Collinsville’s next game is at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, at O’Fallon High School.