East St. Louis flexes its muscle in Southwestern Conference opener against East
East St. Louis rode a a 30-point second quarter to a 57-0 Southwestern Conference road victory Saturday afternoon at Belleville East.
Leading 12-0 after the first quarter, the Flyers blitzed the Lancers for four touchdowns in the second quarter in building a 42-0 halftime margin, prompting the running clock the final 24 minutes.
East St. Louis, which lost 10-8 to Creekside, Georgia, on Sept. 9, improved to 2-2 overall and 1-0 in league play. The Flyers are ranked No. 1 in the latest Associated Press poll Class 6A poll.
“We’ve still got some things we need to work both offensively and defensively,” East St. Louis coach Darren Sunkett said. “We’ll get back on the grind tomorrow. We just want to get better within our team each and every week. I think that’s where we’re going. We took another step today toward bettering ourselves.”
Overall, the Flyers defense dominated, accounting for two touchdowns while pitching the shutout and stifling the East attack. Offensively, junior quarterback Robert Battle fired two touchdown while completing 19-of-29 passes for 232 yards. The Flyers also rushed for 244 yards, including 91 from sophomore Larevious Woods.
“The team played a helluva of a game today,” said Flyers senior Antwon Hayden, an Illinois commit who notched a 50-yard fumble return for a touchdown Saturday. “We came in with a game plan to suffocate everybody ... we’re just trying to prove everyone wrong.”
Belleville East, coming off a 52-18 win against Metea Valley on Sept. 9, dropped to 2-2, 0-1. Lancers coach Michael Harrison knew the margin for error was thin against East St. Louis and noted how key miscues hamstrung his club.
“I am not sure how many turnovers we had (3), but however many was too many,” Harrison said. “You can’t give them any opportunities. We just can’t make those types of bonehead mistakes. They’re the No. 1 ball club in the state and they came out and played and showed why today. Hats off to East St. Louis. They’re a very good ball club; we just didn’t execute.”
Battle’s first touchdown pass was a 40-yard connection to senior Caiden Rogers with 8:29 left in the first quarter. Battle then connected with sophomore Dejerrian Miller on a 17-yard scoring strike for a 12-0 lead heading into the second quarter.
Then came arguably the game’s key sequence. The Lancers faced a 3rd and 1 from near midfield but fumbled and East St. Louis junior Dominic Dixon scooped up the loose ball and rumbled 47-yards for a touchdown, pushing the margin to 20-0.
A rushing touchdown from sophomore Taryan Martin followed by another Flyers’ defensive touchdown — Hayden’s 50-yard fumble return — extended the bulge to 34-0. Martin’s 9-yard touchdown run with 4:06 left in the half upped the lead to 42-0.
Battle’s 23-yard touchdown run and sophomore Woods’ 15-yard rushing score — both in the fourth quarter — completed the scoring.
Along with his touchdown passes, Battle twice connected with Miller on successful 2-point conversions and once each with sophomore Justin Price and junior Rico Bond. Battle also ran in a 2-point conversion.
Next up for Lancers, Flyers
East now will look to break back into the win column at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23, at Alton in another SWC contest. Harrison expects his club to bounce back against the Redbirds, who secured their first win of 2022 against Belleville East on Friday.
“They’re going to be coming in feeling good. We just got our butts beat so we’re going to be licking our wounds a little bit,” Harrison said. “What we have to do is make sure we don’t let today beat us next week. We’ll watch film, fix the mistakes and move on quickly to Alton and come up with a good gameplan to try to come out on top next Friday night.”
East St. Louis, meanwhile, visits O’Fallon at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 24. The Panthers (3-0, 1-0) are coming off a come-from-behind 32-31 win at Edwardsville on Friday and are ranked No. 6 in the latest AP Class 8A poll.
This story was originally published September 17, 2022 at 6:00 PM.