EDWARDSVILLE – Gabby Thompson had a brace (two goals), while Anna Maxim and Addie Greenwood also scored, and Genny Burrough kept the clean sheet in goal as Edwardsville bounced back from their season-opening loss at Columbia to take a 4-0 win over Triad in the Tigers’ home opener Thursday night, March 20, 2025, at Tiger Stadium.
Edwardsville lost in their season opener 1-0 to the Eagles, and the bounce-back win was very satisfying for the Tigers, who had many chances on the night, and played solid defensively.
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Tigers’ head coach Abby Federmann said: “I think after Tuesday, it was just a matter of us needing to click a little bit better, and understand the talent that everyone has around them, I was not worried about it one bit that we would be capable of bouncing back like we did. I’m very, very pleased with the amount of goals. We did not take many opportunities versus Columbia, so that was one of our focuses, to take advantage of our opportunities, and move the ball a little bit better.”
Thompson’s second goal of the night was off a spectacular individual effort on a magnificent run from her own half of the pitch to score the Tigers’ third goal and effectively put the game away.
“She had our first,” Federmann said, “and she had our third, and it’s just a matter of time. Once we get her into a space where she can have those chances, she’s going to put the ball into the net. But it was a cumulative effort by everybody. We were able to move the ball, the defense was a wall, we were able to move the ball and get it into the right feet, and create opportunities.”
Federmann feels very confident that the Tigers will be one of the best teams in the area when all is said and done, and Thursday was an important three point for the team.
“I’m confident,” Federmann said. “I think we’ve got a lot to live up to from last season, but we’ve got some new players with Maddie Klein, and Gabby Thompson to come in and kind of fill in some of the voids that left. So I see us doing as well, if not better, this season, and I think it’s going to be fun.”
Both sides had a good opportunity each in the opening stanzas of the match, before the Tigers broke on top in the 13th minute. Thompson took a good pass in the box, raced in and slotted home into the lower right corner to give Edwardsville a 1-0 lead. The Tigers doubled it in the 28th minute, when off a perfectly placed corner, Abby Maxim headed home inside the far post, into the left side of the goal to make it 2-0 for Edwardsville. The Tigers had some good chances, but were turned away by a stout Triad defense and goalie Payton Hartmann to keep it 2-0 at the interval.
Meanwhile, the Edwardsville defense, especially the back line, helped make life easy for Burrough, as the Tigers were solid defensively. In the 46th minute, Thompson picked up a loose ball in her own box, and went off for a run, going past several Knight players, turned on a dime towards the goal, and hit a shot the eluded the Triad keeper into the back of the net to make it 3-0.
The Tiger defense helped protect the lead, despite a pair of great chances by the Knights that Burrough saved well. The final goal came in the 78th minute, when Greenwood hit a good shot that deflected off the goalie’s hands into the net to make the final 4-0 in favor of Edwardsville.
The Tigers are now 1-1-0 on the young season, and host Collinsville in their Southwestern Conference opener Tuesday night at 6:45 p.m., then host O’Fallon at 6:30 p.m. next Thursday. Before playing a pair of games in Naperville the weekend of Mar. 28-29, taking on Naperville North on Mar. 29 at 5 p.m., then meeting Naperville Central the next day at 10 a.m.
The Knights are now 0-2-0, and next play at Highland Monday night at 5:45 p.m., then host Alton March 29 at 12:45 p.m., then play at Granite City on March 31 in a 6:45 p.m. kickoff.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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Dan Brannan also contributed to this story
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