EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville's girls flag football team lost its first contest of its inaugural season to East St. Louis 25-7 at Edwardsville High School football field on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. However, the Tigers played hard in a contest where East St. Louis quarterback Zakeyla Perry tossed three touchdowns.
The loss dropped Edwardsville to 4-1, but head coach Taylor Hay stayed upbeat after the game, and said it was better for her team to face adversity now than in the postseason.
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"Like I told the girls, it is easier to face adversity early on in the season," Hay said. "Going undefeated for four games feels good, but facing adversity early on in the season is probably beneficial to having a postseason, as opposed to feeling it then. So, we made a lot of mental mistakes, and we have some stuff to clean up. But we will get back to work tomorrow."
Hay was very complimentary of the Flyers' play, agreeing that they were the better team on the night.
"They capitalized on our mistakes, and I told them good teams, when you make mistakes, will capitalize on them," Hay said. "So, we made some mental mistakes, blown coverages, dropped passes, and East Side finished what they needed to finish. So, yeah, they were the better team tonight."
Still, the 4-1 record is still very good for the first-year program, and the Tigers and Flyers will meet Oct. 2 at Clyde C. Jordan Memorial Stadium in East St. Louis. It's a game Hay will be looking forward to. But before that, there's still business at hand to handle.
"We have a home game next Wednesday," Hay said. "It's our Senior Night against Belleville West, then we go on the road to Belleville East on Thursday. So, we definitely have some work to do next week. Obviously, we have games before that, and we're going to take care of those, and when we match up again with East Side, we'll give them a better game."
Edwardsville is 4-1, and hosts West next Wednesday at 6 p.m., then plays at East next Thursday at 6:30 p.m., then is scheduled to play two on Sept. 27, hosting Mahomet-Seymour at 12:30 p.m., then Kankakee at 1:45 p.m.
