Sunday, Sep. 07, 2008

Flyers rebound in a big way; post lopsided win over Washington, D.C., school

EAST ST. LOUIS -- Traveling by bus from Washington, D.C., it took the St. John's Cadets 15 hours to arrive in East St. Louis on Friday.

Once they got around to playing football Saturday afternoon, it took them about 15 minutes to experience the potency of the Flyers.

Scoring touchdowns on six of their first seven possessions, the Flyers built a 40-7 halftime lead and cruised to a 54-13 demolition of the Cadets on the new FieldTurf surface at Clyde C. Jordan Stadium.

"They played the game we knew they were capable of playing," said St. John's coach Joe Patterson. "They have a lot of good athletes, and we made enough miscues on our side to really facilitate what happened today.

"That's just an awfully good football team which has playmakers who make a lot of plays."

Those playmakers christened East Side's new artificial surface with a dominating performance on both sides of the ball.

Junior quarterback Detchauz Wray threw three touchdown passes to three different receivers and also scored a rushing touchdown, spearheading an offense that outgained the Cadets 387 to 125 in total yardage.

Junior running back Courtney Molton rushed for a game-high 97 yards on 11 carries and scored on a 4-yard run, while freshman Jeremy Nichols had his coming-out party, gaining 61 yards on 12 carries and scoring on a 1-yard run.

"We all just came together as a unit," said Wray, who completed 11-of-16 pass attempts for 164 yards. "We had to redeem ourselves from last week. Everybody stepped up and did their part."

The Flyers (1-1) were still smarting from last week's 20-12 loss to the Huber Heights Wayne (Ohio) Warriors in Cincinnati. East Side failed to hold a 12-0 lead and as a result, dropped to No. 2 in the Illinois Class 7A state poll and fell out of the ESPN/Rise Fab 50 national rankings.

"I think it was just a great team effort all the way around," said East Side coach Darren Sunkett. "I think our offense felt like they had something to prove because they didn't put the points up that we thought they should have put up last week.

"That's to be expected. It takes our offense a little longer to get on track than the defense does. You saw the progression from Week 1 to Week 2."

East Side's defense was stout, forcing three turnovers and collecting three sacks. The Cadets didn't cross the 50-yard line until there was under three minutes left in the first half.

"The defense played better than I have ever seen us play," said senior defensive back Dontrell Smith, who had two interceptions. "We came out and played ball. We had our minds together from the get-go."

The Flyers administered several bone-crushing hits that drew hoots and hollers from East Side's crowd. One of those hits forced speedy St. John's quarterback Ed Thomas to the sideline midway through the second quarter with a hip injury.

Thomas did not return, replaced by sophomore Robert Cadle.

"It was to the point where he couldn't run," Patterson said. "It certainly affects things when you lose your starting quarterback."

East Side ruled the first half, outgaining St. John's 336 to 30 in total yardage. Wray tossed TD passes to Terry Hawthorn (13 yards), Chris Murphy (18 yards) and Kraig Appleton (14 yards), and also opened the scoring on a 1-yard run on East Side's first drive.

Molton (5-yard run) and Hawthorn (32-yard end around) also participated in the scoring cavalcade as East Side built a 40-7 halftime lead.

After St. John's fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half -- with Cameron Webb running it in from 16 yards out for a TD -- East Side led 47-7. The 40-point mercy rule was instituted, causing a running clock for the entire second half.

"They're a pretty good football team that plays in a pretty good conference," Sunkett said of the Cadets, who play in the Washington Catholic Conference. "We knew it was going to be physical up front, but our kids came to play today. I was very impressed with their performance."

Contact reporter Rod Kloeckner at rkloeckner@bnd.com or 239-2663.