East St. Louis topples top seed, which won’t soon forget Myson Johnson-Cook
In fairness to the public address announcer at the Chatham-Glenwood High School football stadium, the official roster sheet listed his name as Myson Cook Johnson, when his correct name is Myson Johnson-Cook. So, over and over in Saturday’s Class 6A playoff game between East St. Louis and the Glenwood Titans, Cook’s name was mispronounced to the thousands on hand.
It won’t be long before anyone mistakes Cook’s real name.
The 6-foot-2, 220-pound junior running back of the Flyers is one of the most sought-after recruits in the nation. His mother, Tara, said her cell phone rings nonstop from the estimated 50 college coaches who hope to get a letter of commitment from her son this summer.
Cook was besieged by autograph and selfie hounds following the Flyers’ 53-14 victory over the Titans. He ran for 257 yards and three touchdowns in the win, including a 99-yard TD run on the first play from scrimmage after East St. Louis stopped the Titans just inches short of what would have been a first-and-goal situation from their own 1, in what had been a 27-14 game in the third quarter.
Cook took the handoff from quarterback Reece Shanklin and ran straight up the middle, breaking through a convergence of defenders to open field and paydirt 99 yards later. Game over.
“I broke one tackle, and then I saw somebody so I kind of juked him a little bit and then all I saw was green,” Cook said. “I feel like I’ve got another gear still to get to, next game and the week after that, for sure.”
The defending state champion Flyers (7-3) will play at home next weekend against Simeon in the 6A quarterfinals.
Cook started his high school career at Decatur MacArthur, but played his sophomore season in Texas for DeSoto High School. He moved back to Illinois this summer to be closer to his mother, however, and oh-by-the-way to also play under six-time state champion coach Darren Sunkett.
There were some games this season where Cook didn’t carry the ball much, but that seems to have changed. He was certainly Shanklin’s first choice to hand the football in this one, and also in recent weeks.
Cook has a tall, straight-up running stride that is reminiscent of Hall of Fame former NFL running back Eric Dickerson.
“That 99-yarder was definitely the back-breaker in this game,” Sunkett said. “Our goal coming out of the second half was to keep the flags in the officials’ pockets, and after some adjustments, we started to play Flyers football.”
There were about as many flags flown in this one as waved in the wind of the United Nations building in New York. While an official number for the game was not given, there were at least 15 penalties assessed to East St. Louis in the first half, of all varieties. That brought forth full-throated disagreement from the well-traveled Flyers faithful in the stands, but Sunkett never lost his cool with the officials – though he acknowledged he wasn’t too happy with them.
“Keeping the officials out of the game; that was it right there,” Sunkett said, when asked how a close game at halftime (20-14) turned into a blowout in the second. “Both of their touchdown drives were aided by a lot of yellow flags. It was nothing they did to stop us today. They were aided by a lot of flags, but we just kept our composure. We just kept playing.”
Sunkett did, however, say his team must correct the many illegal procedures and offside calls that plagued his team the first three quarters.
“There’s nothing to be accomplished yelling at (officials). They’ve got a hard enough job as it is. But we had to be smarter and take those guys out of the game. There were a lot of judgment calls, and we can’t control those,” Sunkett said. “But we can control the jumping offside and the late hits and things of that sort. That’s what we tried to clean up at halftime, and I thought we did a pretty good job of that.”
