Unstoppable East St. Louis glides past Oak Lawn Richards in quarterfinal round
Reserve wide receiver Kenneth Cotton got East St. Louis off and running and the Oak Lawn Richards Bulldogs could never slow the Flyers down Saturday at Clyde Jordan Stadium.
Cotton returned the opening kickoff 74 yards for a touchdown and junior quarterback Tyler Macon tossed four first half scoring passes as the the undefeated Flyers overwhelmed Oak Lawn Richards 60-0 in an IHSA Class 6A quarterfinal round game.
A 5-10, 155-pound junior, Cotton fielded the kickoff, made one move towards the middle of the field, then sprinted up the right sideline untouched to give East St. Louis the lead only 14 seconds into the game.
“Actually, I was a little surprised. I got ball and just wanted to make a play,” Cotton said. “I cut to the sideline and just ran.”
Macon connected with junior Keantez Lewis on a 30-yard touchdown pass five minutes later and added a 22-yard strike to Lawaun Powell later in the opening quarter as East St,. Louis (12-0) took a 22-0 lead over the fourth-seeded Bulldogs.
With the Flyers defense completely containing Richards all-state running back LaShon Williams, the Bulldogs never posed a threat as East St. Louis moved into the state semifinals for the first time since winning the Class 7A state championship in 2016.
“He’s a young player who has worked hard and waited for his opportunity. Today Kenneth (Cotton) made the most out of that opportunity,” Flyers coach Darren Sunkett said. “It was a big play because it got us off to a good start.”
The win moves the Flyers into a semifinal round game next weekend against Chatham-Glenwood (12-0), which defeated New Lennox Providence Catholic 40-16 on Saturday. The East St. Louis-Chatham-Glenwood game will be played at East St. Louis. The date and time will be released Monday.
Macon, who completed his first 15 pass attempts and finished the day 19-of-21 for 311 yards, made it 28-0 on a 1-yard run early in the second quarter. Macon finished the day with 36 touchdown passes for the season, including a 54-yard strike to Dominic Lovett right before halftime as the Flyers took a 44-0 lead.
Richards, like most of the Flyers opponents, had little chance to stop the East St. Louis passing attack, which features a future college quarterback in Macon and four future D1 players who happen to be the wide receivers.
“It’s great to be able to have the receivers we have,” Macon said. “We’re tough to defend and there is no way you can double team anyone because it leaves somebody open. We played well today and the defense was great again.”
Williams, a 6-0, 205-pound senior who is headed to the University of Iowa, came into the game with impressive numbers. With over 1,200 yards rushing despite missing five games because of injury earlier this year, Williams ran for more than 3,000 yards in 2018 in helping Richards reach the Class 6A semifinals.
At halftime Saturday, Williams had 10 yards on 12 carries.
“We challenged our football team this week,” Sunkett said. “We knew about the running back who is going to Iowa (Williams) and we wanted to be the first team all year to hold him under 100 yards. We wanted to be the first team all season to hold them (Richards) scoreless.
“Our football team met all the challenges this week. In all phases of the game — offense, defense and special teams — we played very well today.’’
That feeling was backed up by Richards coach Tony Sheehan, who didn’t hold back when asked what he though of the Flyers.
“That’s the greatest high school football team I’ve seen,” Sheehan said. “In all phases they took it to us. We had some guys open early and we just didn’t make any plays.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 10:11 PM.
