Jake Curry leads Edwardsville past Glenbard West in Illinois 8A football second-round playoff game

Senior quarterback accounts for four touchdowns in big win

EDWARDSVILLE, ILLINOIS – Jake Curry and the Edwardsville football team knew they needed to get off to a fast start on Saturday against visiting Glenbard West.

Curry and the Tigers couldn't have started much faster in their Illinois Class 8A second-round playoff game.

The Southern Illinois-bound senior quarterback led three scoring drives in the first quarter and five in the first half as Edwardsville built a 20-point advantage on its way to an impressive 48-14 victory. 

"We actually started off pretty slow last week," said Curry, who threw two touchdown passes and ran for two TDs. "We scored once in the first half. This week I think we scored every single drive we got. We knew that Glenbard wasn't going to give us many possessions. We just had to take advantage of them." 

The fourth-seeded Tigers (10-1), the No. 13 team in the SBLive Illinois Power 25 rankings, advance to the 8A quarterfinals where they will face fifth-seeded York (10-1). York defeated No. 21 seed Lyons 17-14 on a field goal as time expired on Saturday night.

Edwardsville's 10 wins match the program's most since going 10-2 in 2016. The Tigers have reached the 10-win mark just five times in the past 20 years and only nine times going back to the mid-1980s.

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"We talked about trying to start fast and I think we did that today on both sides of the ball," first-year Edwardsville coach Kelsey Pickering said. "We came out, we got a stop, went down and scored. I think any time we can start fast – any team that can start fast – it's going to go well. You start with good momentum, you have good flow. 

"And I don't think we turned the ball over today. I can't remember. I think we had one, maybe two. So we won the turnover battle, that's a positive, something that we've been focused on this week. I think any time we can start fast, we limit the turnovers, we've got a chance. That's a hell of a team over there."

Glenbard West (8-3), No. 21 in the SBLive Power 25, entered Saturday's contest with a seven-game win streak but the Hilltoppers couldn't keep up with the high-scoring Tigers early on.

Curry connected with Zach Williams for an 8-yard touchdown pass on Edwardsville's first series and then Steven Moore Jr. scored on a 48-yard touchdown run to make it 14-0 with 5 minutes 52 seconds left in the first quarter. 

Glenbard West responded with a kickoff return touchdown by Mason Ellens, but missed the point-after kick. 

The Hilltoppers got a break when Ellens recovered the ensuing squib kick kickoff, but then the Edwardsville defense came up with a turnover when Noah Ramirez forced a fumble and Clarence Stewart recovered it.

The Tigers turned that turnover into a 21-6 lead when Curry scored on a 1-yard plunge on fourth down with 1:31 remaining in the first quarter.

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Glenbard West cut the deficit to 21-14 on a short Ben Cesario touchdown run and a 2-point conversion run by Jack Moellering with 8:41 left in the first half, but the Hilltoppers would not score again.

Edwardsville answered with a 20-yard touchdown run by Patrick Chism and then another 1-yard TD sneak by Curry with 38 seconds left in the half to go ahead 34-14 at halftime.

The Tigers kept rolling in the third quarter.  

Curry connected with Kaylon Bursey for a 21-yard touchdown pass on Edwardsville's first series of the second half – Curry's second TD pass of the day – and then an interception by Drew Smith turned into a short touchdown run by Javion Smith to push the Tigers' advantage to 48-14.

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- Nate Latsch | latsch@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveIL