Cold night, costly errors: Fenwick ends East St. Louis title reign in 6A shocker
Numb.
That described the East St. Louis Flyers, physically and mentally, at the final horn of Tuesday night’s Class 6A state championship game at Hancock Stadium on the campus of Illinois State University.
On an icy field with temperatures in the low teens and a biting wind chill, the Flyers’ bid for a second straight state championship was put on ice by Oak Park Fenwick, which stunned East St. Louis 38-28.
A Flyers team that entered the game as heavy favorites was undone by an uncharacteristic number of mistakes following a three-day postponement from the originally scheduled Saturday contest, and a Friars team that made the kind of clutch plays the Flyers are accustomed to delivering.
With he and his players still wearing head coverings against the bitter cold, Flyers coach Darren Sunkett said in the postgame interview room inside Hancock Stadium that there would be no excuse-making. Did the layoff affect his team? Yes, Sunkett admitted.
“You don’t like to make excuses, but we definitely missed four days of practice with the whole weather (situation),” Sunkett said. “It took us out of our routine and we just weren’t able to practice in that time.”
The Friars (11-3) had the same layoff, but Sunkett, while crediting Fenwick for a great game, also said his squad beat itself.
“We just had way too many mistakes,” Sunkett said. “You can’t make those kinds of mistakes against a good football team.”
Offense was not the issue for the Flyers (10-4). They got 183 yards on 26 carries and two touchdowns from four-star running back Myson Johnson-Cook. Quarterback Reece Shanklin threw for 183 yards, Ahmad Coleman rushed for 105 yards and Amir Tillman added 66 yards on five carries.
But situational offense was a problem at times—most notably on an interception by two-way Friars star Jake Thies with 2:30 left in a 31-28 game.
The Flyers trailed by just three and seemed poised for a potential go-ahead score, but Thies stepped in front of a Shanklin pass and raced down the left sideline to the Flyers’ 4-yard line. He then ran it in from there, capping a night with 100 yards on nine carries and two touchdowns, three receptions and the interception.
Earlier, Thies had dashed 74 yards for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage after the Flyers tied the game at 21. East St. Louis answered with a 14-yard Shanklin pass to Tillman to tie it at 28, but the Friars responded and got a 31-yard field goal from Noah Sur.
“It hasn’t really hit me yet, but I’m just super happy right now,” Thies said. “On the interception, there was no one in my zone, so I was just looking for work. I saw a guy come across the field, and saw the quarterback look at him and just made the play. It’s a play I made a few times this year.”
The game took a bad turn for the Flyers on their first possession, when, after a three-and-out series, a snap sailed over the head of punter Shanklin and was recovered at the Flyers’ 4-yard line. Thies ran it in for a quick 7-0 Friars lead.
Still, the Flyers scored the next 13 points and appeared to regain their swagger. But the Friars hung in with a couple of defensive stops and took a 14-13 lead into halftime.
Cook, who will return to the Flyers for his senior year, described his first season at East St. Louis:
“We didn’t get what we wanted. It’s very disappointing, but for me it’s still a great experience.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2025 at 11:35 PM.
