Battle ‘spreads the wealth’ in East St. Louis’ win over CBC in high school football

A week after dropping a 20-13 decision to Baltimore St. Frances in Canton, Ohio, the East St. Louis football Flyers found themselves down 7-0 against St. Louis power Christian Brothers College just 18 seconds into the game Saturday night.

Flyers quarterback Robert “Pops” Battle and the East St. Louis offense didn’t panic.

Battle capped East Side’s next drive with a 10-yard touchdown run and the Flyers exploded for 36 points over the next 17 and a half minutes. They rolled to 64-19 rout of the Cadets in the 2022 Gateway Scholars Football Classic at Cyle C. Jordan Memorial Stadium in East St Louis.

Battle was full of smiles after leading his Flyers to a home opener victory.

“We came up short last we like so it was like a mission for us,” he said.

A lost fumble on East Side’s opening drive set CBC up with short field as the Cadets converted that turnover into a 7-yard touchdown run by running back Ralph Dixon. The Cadets’ point after attempt failed.

Battle, the Flyers’ gifter junior signal caller answered on the next drive with a 10-yard touchdown run to make it 6-6. After a missed PAT attempt, the East Side special teams scored a safety off a muffed CBC punt that rolled into and out of the end zone at 6:48 of the first quarter.

On the ensuing Flyers drive, Battle found Christopher Bennett, Jr. on a 15-yard pass for a touchdown upping the lead to 14-6.

The Cadets struck back with a touchdown on a 61-yard Cole Mckey to Jeremiah McClellan pass to cut the lead to 14-13 but just before the end of the quarter, East Side answered as Larevious Woods scored on a 1-yard run, extending the lead by nine.

Battle opened the second quarter with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Jesse Watson, making it 28-13. CBC punched back with a score of its own, but in the final six minutes of the first half, Battle fired a 47-yard touchdown bomb to Bennett, Jr. and a 25-yard TD pass to Justin Price, staking the Flyers to a commanding 42-19 halftime lead.

“Basically, Coach Sunkett told us to chill because we came out really, really hard so we had to chill and slow down and let the game come to us,” Battle said.

Battle was sharp throughout the night as he threw for five touchdowns and ran for one more. East Side had six different players score touchdowns as Bennett, running back Larevious Woods, and Watson each scored two touchdowns on the night.

Flyers coach Darren Sunkett was pleased with Battle’s efficient spreading of the offensive wealth.

“He definitely grew up (tonight),” Sunkett said. “Pops is running the offense, making all his reads and all he can do is get better each and every week.

“We talked all summer about spreading the wealth and spreading the ball around and we feel like we have some very talented guys in our skill positions and we find ways to get guys the ball in space and do what they do best.”

While the night started with promise for CBC (1-1) — which won over Milton, Georgia in Ohio last week — the Cadets couldn’t match the Flyers’ skill and fell to East Side for the third time since the series started in 2016.

“We couldn’t really get our running game established and they did a great job moving the ball up and down the field and we were able to do some things but we just couldn’t score points,” said CBC coach Scott Pingel. “East St. Louis had a great game plan and they played really well. We just didn’t execute as well as in the past and we got to play a little harder next week.”

A 65-yard TaRyan Martin touchdown run and a 36-yard Battle to Watson in the third quarter and an early fourth quarter 6-yard TD run by Woods kicked off the running clock for the game.

Sunkett was proud of his players last week and this week the results matched the effort in a good way.

“We were proud of the guys last week and they worked their butts off this week and it showed out here tonight,” Sunkett said.

This story was originally published September 3, 2022 at 11:06 PM.