FOOTBALL: Shock Therapy

EDWARDSVILLE - Immeasurable were the shock waves rumbling through the Tigers locker room after a 59-28 loss at Collinsville, but they did reach the halls of Edwardsville High School well into the next week.

"It was like, what, 26 years since we lost to them," Tigers senior linebacker Nick Griebel said of Edwardsville's first loss to Collinsville since 1982, "and everyone was giving us (a hard time) at school. But we just had to stay focused on our next game. It provided a lot of motivation for us."

Whatever panic resulted from the end of a 25-game winning streak against their traditionally biggest rival a week earlier was mostly eased Friday night when the Tigers beat the O'Fallon Panthers 30-12 at the District 7 Sports Complex.

"It happens," Tigers quarterback Ish Roundtree said of the defeat at Collinsville. "We just had to regroup from it and prepare for our next game."

The Tigers dominated the first half against the Panthers, building a 24-0 lead that was too much for O'Fallon to overcome. And while O'Fallon coach Brandon Joggerst is part of a consensus that sees balance in the SWC from teams Nos. 2-8 behind East St. Louis, it didn't play out at Edwardsville on Friday.

"We didn't see very much parity tonight," Joggerst said. "We thought coming in we could be in every ballgame or we could have this happen in every ballgame. We have to give a tremendous effort for us to be in ballgames.

"And tonight, the effort was not there in the first half. ... By no means did we take them lightly. We knew they were a good club."

Of Edwardsville's 455 yards offense against O'Fallon, 298 came in the first half. Tigers coach Mark Bliss said his offensive approach was "probably too conservative" in the second half, but he wanted to do nothing that would jeopardize his team's recovery from what Bliss called "an embarrassment" at Collinsville.

Part of Tigers' postgame evaluation includes coaches scouring game tape for instances where effort failed to meet expectation. The replay proved as disappointing as the live version.

"We broke down the (Collinsville) film last week, and we always count loafs," Bliss said. "And when we got to 44 in the third quarter, we had the 44^th loaf, we shut it off. It was absolutely embarrassing.

"When the kids saw what they did on film, we challenged them all week long. And I'll be honest with you, we were pretty hard on them in practice. And they responded in kind tonight. I am very proud of their effort, they did a great job."

Sophomore running back Rodney Coe rushed for 206 yards and two TDs on 26 carries for the Tigers, who also got 122 rushing yards on 12 carries from Roundtree.

In just two games since serving a three-game suspension, the 6-foot-3, 230-pound Coe already ranks fifth in the SWC with 451 rushing yards, while averaging 9.4 yards a carry with five TDs.

"He's only a sophomore," Bliss said, "so there's a lot of room for improvement. ... He's a big back and if he runs hard, it's hard to bring him down."

The 4-1 Tigers now brace for another test Friday night at 4-1 Belleville West. Edwardsville has won 12 straight vs. the Maroons since rejoining the SWC in 1996. A victory would put Edwardsville at the five wins that usually bring a playoff berth.

But given the weakness of the Tigers' nonconference foes - both Springfield Southeast and Chicago Corliss are 0-5 - Edwardsville may need six wins to make postseason.

With a 5-4 finish for the Tigers, their seven SWC opponents would provide 33 playoff points. The chances of Southeast and Corliss offering more than one win combined probably is a longshot and each of the past four seasons have required at least 35 playoff points for a five-win team to make the tournament.

But no matter the math just more than halfway through the season, Bliss had much to be pleased with from his team's victory over O'Fallon.

"This puts us at 4-1 and one step closer to the playoffs," Bliss said. "And that's our goal."