The O’Fallon Panthers face the Edwardsville Tigers in a playoff game

When the Edwardsville football team played O’Fallon’s Panthers in mid-September, the Tigers blew a chance for a home win, losing 32-31.

Edwardsville got another crack at No. 11 seed O’Phelan on Saturday night, and this time, the No. 22 seed Tigers got the job done. Receiver Dion Gaston and quarterback Jake Curry had four touchdown passes and the Tigers’ defense had a fourth down in the final minute to help seal a 43-36 victory in the first round of the IHSA Class 8A playoffs.

“The last time we played, we thought we had five downs the whole game, and (this time) I feel like everybody was just ready to play,” Curry said. “We didn’t have a lot of mistakes tonight, which is a good sign.”

Edwardsville (7-3) will now host Wilmette (9-1) next weekend in a second-round playoff game.

The Tigers took an early lead on an 11-yard touchdown run by Curry Joey DeMaru and took a 7-0 lead with 5:37 left in the first quarter.

O’Fallon (8-2) got on the board early in the second quarter thanks to Christopher Caldwell’s 1-yard touchdown run. The PAT was blocked, the score remained 7-6.

Then Gaston became passionate about the Tigers. On the Tigers’ next drive, Gaston caught Curry for a 19-yard touchdown. After the Panthers went 65 yards on touchdown runs by Colt Michael and Jalen Smith, Gaston ripped the opening kickoff 85 yards to the house to extend the Tigers’ lead to 21-14.

O’Fallon didn’t pull away until halftime when Kaylan Green cut the deficit to 21-20 with a 3-yard touchdown run after another blocked PAT by the Tigers.

Curry hit Gaston for a 53-yard touchdown in the third quarter and then, with 11:38 left in the fourth, Curry found Gaston for a 62-yard bomb that put the Tigers up 35-20.

Edwardsville coach Matt Martin gushed about Gaston’s Big Four TD performance.

“Dion is making an argument for himself, isn’t he?” – said Martin. “He’s pretty special. Pretty special.”

The Panthers then came back in the final 11 minutes, starting with Caldwell punching in a 1-yard touchdown. Caldwell then caught a 2-point pass from Michael to make it 35-28 with 7:25 left.

O’Fallon grabbed its first and only lead of the night with 2:18 left when Smith caught a pass from Michaels and raced 32 yards to paydirt. Caldwell ran in a 2-point play to give the Panthers a 36-35 lead with 2:18 left.

Edwardsville didn’t blink on its next drive. On first down from their own 19, Curry went deep and connected with DeMar on a breakaway, who headed down to the Panthers’ 5-yard line.

It was a clutch play that put the Tigers in business.

“I heard the play and I was like, ‘I’ve got to run as fast as I can and I saw green grass and I was just trying to go as fast as I could,'” DeMar said.

Last chance for the Panthers

De’Shon Larson capped the drive with a 5-yard touchdown run to give the Tigers a 43-36 lead with 1:43 left.

“We knew (then) we had to score (on that drive),” Curry said.

O’Fallon got the ball back, but the Panthers’ last drive was stopped by a penalty, some mix-up on the field between the third and fourth downs and then a fourth-down stop by Edwardsville defenders.

Gettis praises team, Tigers ready for Round 2

Panthers coach Byron Gettys gave credit to Edwardsville, but was also proud of his club’s effort despite the lackluster result.

“It’s going to be a battle every time we play these guys and they’re a good team. They made the fewest mistakes and won,” Gettys said. “That’s the name of the game. Those guys put it out there on the field and we made some mistakes, but they didn’t let it bother them and it came down to a couple of plays and they made them and we didn’t.”

Edwardsville, meanwhile, is looking forward to heading home for the second round of the playoffs next week.

“It feels great,” Demar said. “I’m ready to stay at home in front of our fans and just play football.”