Sunday, Nov. 08, 2009

Flyers keep rolling along with win over Minooka

EAST ST. LOUIS -- With Courtney Molten hobbled by an ankle injury, the East St. Louis Flyers plugged in Darius Stewart at running back and kept right on rolling.

Stewart rushed for 199 yards and three touchdowns in leading the Flyers past the Minooka Indians 48-20 Saturday at Clyde Jordan Stadium in the second round of the Class 7A playoffs.

"Who can't run for them?" Minooka coach Bert Kooi said. "They're a good football team, they're a very good football team."

Stewart is a 6-foot-2, 190-pound senior transfer from McCluer North High School, where he rushed for 570 yards and seven touchdowns last season.

Stewart played in two games early this season.

"We don't want to go into that," Flyers coach Darren Sunkett said of why Stewart hasn't played since Week 3 of the regular season. "Stewart played well, let's just go there. He played well, and that's what we need from guys. Each week, we have new guys who step up."

Molten was used more as decoy as he had six carries for 31 yards in the game.

"We just wanted to test him, just to see what his ankle looked like," Sunkett said. "We're looking for him on down the line. He is still a little gimpy. We looked at him early and saw that he was still a little timid, and we got him out of there and went with our backups."

The defending Class 7A champion Flyers (9-2) will play the O'Fallon Panthers (8-3) next weekend in the quarterfinals.

The Flyers beat the Panthers 44-0 on Sept. 25.

"It's a conference foe," Sunkett said. "It's a team that we definitely can't look past. O'Fallon has definitely gotten better over the last four or five weeks. We have to come play football. We have to prepare for those guys like we prepare for anybody else."

The Flyers also excelled on defense and special teams against the Indians, who ended their season with an 8-3 record.

The Flyers didn't allow a first down in the first half as they totally shut down the Indians' running game.

"Those guys gave us some extra motivation," Sunkett said. "They made quotes in the paper that said great teams beat guys who are just athletes. We just want to show these guys that in order to stop an option offense, you have to have a great team. We showed a great defensive unit today. Not only do we have athletes, we have a great team."

The Flyers took the opening kickoff and marched 63 yards for a touchdown.

On fourth-and-goal from the Minooka 4, Detchauz Wray threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Jylon Spraggins.

The extra-point kick was blocked.

Stewart had his first touchdown run -- a 16-yarder -- with 9:37 left in the second quarter.

Stewart ran up the middle for the two-point conversion to put the Flyers ahead 14-0.

The Flyers went up 14-0 on a 16-yard touchdown run by Stewart.

Minooka running back Kyle Banks ran 74 yards on a double handoff to get the Indians on the scoreboard with 8:40 left in the second quarter.

The ball literally bounced the Flyers' way on a touchdown that put them up 21-7 with 7:21 left in the second quarter.

Jeremy Nicholson ran 12 yards around the left end, but then fumbled. The ball bounced right to Spraggins, who caught it in stride and ran 29 yards for a touchdown.

The Flyers increased their lead 27-7 on a 1-yard sneak by Wray in the third quarter.

The Indians finally started churning out some yards on the ground as they picked up their first three first downs of the game on a 65-yard drive that was capped by a 4-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Mitchell Brozovich to Cody Carter with 2:01 left in the third quarter.

Duke Robinson answered with an 85-yard return for a touchdown on the ensuing kickoff for the Flyers.

Robinson fielded the ball near the right sideline at the Minooka 15, reversed directions and ran back inside the 5-yard line before turning the corner on the left side.

"If we had any glimmer of hope, it was snuffed out with that long kickoff return," Kooi said.

The Flyers went up 42-14 on a 5-yard run up the middle by Stewart with 26 seconds left in the third quarter.

Stewart burst loose for a 42-yard touchdown run with 57 seconds remaining to close out the scoring.

Wray completed 6 of 13 passes for 124 yards for the Flyers.

Banks rushed for 120 yards on 15 carries for the Indians.