East Alton-Wood River's best drive of the first half came next.

The Oilers mounted an eight-play, 74-yard march, with 42 of the yards covered by four carries by Stilts.

Champlin scored from a yard out to even the score with 11:56 left in the second quarter.

From that moment on, Alton Marquette controlled the contest.

After getting good field position at their own 47 after the Oilers' kickoff, Coach Dickerson's club took just two plays to score again.

Rea hit Bell on a quick six-yard reception before Blocker made his presence felt.

Rea found Blocker on a pass to the left side of the field, where the senior made a nice move across the field and got through some EAWR defenders before sprinting the rest of the way to the endzone.

The catch-and-run netted 47-yards for the score.

Freshman kicker Joe Stephen made the second of his PAT's for a 14-7 lead.

Not only did Stephen connect on all seven of his point after kicks, the ninth grader made a huge play on the ensuing kickoff.

Stephen did an onside kick in which he recovered the ball in EAWR territory.

A 13-yard pass play from Rea to senior Dorihan Sykes and 10-yard run by McCloud got the ball to the EAWR 27.

Rea then dropped back and launched a pass to Blocker, who caught the ball near the goal line on the right side.

Blocker spun into the endzone for his second touchdown reception and a 21-7 advantage.

Following a three-and-out by EAWR, the Explorers quickly scored again.

A punt return by Blocker to the Oilers' 46 set up Marquette to score again.

Rea rambled in from 37-yards out on a run down the left sideline for a 28-7 lead with 3:54 before halftime.

After the Oilers scored their first TD, Coach Herron's club didn't get another first down the rest of the half.

When they gave up the ball after a punt with just 1:46 left in the second quarter, Marquette struck again.

Rea passed again to Blocker for what looked like would be only a short gain.

The senior made a great move to shake loose from a EAWR defender and sprinted the rest of the way into the right side of the endzone for a 35-7 halftime lead.

Blocker pretty much ended whatever drama that remained with his long kickoff return to open the second half as he took the kickoff on the left side of the field and then cut across when he found an opening.

The long run was followed by the sixth PAT by Stephen, which pushed the score to 42-7 with 11:43 left in the third quarter.

“When you have a young, inexperienced team, they have to learn and sometimes it's learning the hard way,” said Coach Herron, who has only four seniors on the Oilers' squad this fall. “They just have to keep fighting and get better.”

To the credit of the Oilers, they responded with a pair of second half scores.

A 10-play drive on its next possession was finished by another Champlin one-yard run.

EAWR added an early fourth quarter score on an 11-yard run by Winchester and a two-point conversion pass from Smith to sophomore La'Twon Everage.

“We showed some fight in the second half. We moved the ball better but we have some tough opponents coming up in the conference and it will be more difficult fighting back when you get down like that,” said Coach Herron.

McCloud closed the scoring on a 22-yard run with 4:24 remaining.

The 5-11, 220 junior running back also had a 54-yard fourth quarter TD called back because of a holding penalty.

Marquette will travel to Harrisburg next Friday night while EAWR will travel to Cahokia Conference rival Salem on Friday night to face a team that beat Marquette 47-13 in a Week 2 matchup.

“To their testament, the kids fought through it and wanted this. They earned it, nothing was given to them,” said Coach Dickerson about ending the losing streak. “Right now we're going to enjoy this and tomorrow we will start thinking about Week Four.”