East St. Louis blasts Chatham Glenwood in 6A semifinals, headed for state title game

The explosive East St. Louis Flyers welcomed high-scoring Chatham Glenwood to their “House of Pain” Saturday and with a trip to the IHSA Class 6A title game on the line, the Flyers sent the visiting Titans home disappointed and empty-handed.

East St. Louis used four first-half touchdowns and converted a pair of early red-zone stops into a 50-28 state semifinal victory at Clyde C. Jordan Memorial Stadium.

East St. Louis (13-0) will take on Prairie Ridge for the Class 6A championship at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 30, at Huskie Field in DeKalb.

“I’m proud of my kids,” East St. Louis coach Darren Sunkett said. “They’ve been through a lot ... and this team and these coaches, I couldn’t be more proud of my boys right now.”

A pair of first-quarter touchdowns got ESL rolling early. The Flyers opened up with a 10 play, 90-yard drive to take the lead 7-0 on DeMonta Witherspoon’s 7-yard touchdown run.

Just before the end of the quarter, Witherspoon found the end zone again, this time on a 20-yard touchdown romp to make it 14-0.

In the second quarter, Flyers quarterback Tyler Macon called his own number and raced 12 yards for a TD and then just before the end of the half, Witherspoon scored his third TD of the day on a 3-yard run for a commanding 26-0 cushion. The 2-point run conversion pushed the lead to 28-0 at the break..

East St. Louis’ physical offensive line was too much on the ground for Chatham.

“That was the game plan,” Sunkett said. “We knew that we were a lot more physical than those guys up front.”

In the final quarter, the Flyers stretched the lead to 50-21 as Witherspoon scored on a 2-yard run and Macon added a 13-yard touchdown run with 7:59 left to put the game out of reach.

Chatham-Glenwood got three rushing touchdowns from quarterback Luke Lehnen but got no closer than 50-28.

Witherspoon finished the day with five touchdowns on the ground and credited his offensive line with being physical all day.

“Our offensive line was physical and we put in the work and they let a running back eat,” Witherspoon said.

East St. Louis now will shoot for its ninth state title in school history, and Witherspoon is ready.

“We’re looking forward to going there and we want to win,” Witherspoon said.

This story was originally published November 23, 2019 at 5:02 PM.