High school football: No. 3 St. Frances Academy survives East St. Louis upset bid 20-13

By Aaron Williams Aug 27, 2022, 8:30pm

Panthers get Michael Van Buren TD pass with 90 seconds left to hold off Flyers in season opener.

St. Frances Academy (Baltimore, Md.), the No. 3 team in the MaxPreps Top 25 high school football rankings, survived a big-time scare Saturday night in its season opener. The Panthers got a 59-yard TD strike from Michael Van Buren to Mekhi Workman with just under two minutes to play to stave off upset-minded East St. Louis (East St. Louis, Ill.).

The late score prevented St. Frances Academy from becoming the second top 10 team to lose after No. 4 IMG Academy fell 20-14 to No. 14 Miami Central on Friday night.


The Flyers opened the scoring with a 30-yard screen pass that Larevious Woods took into the end zone.

Dyan Carter scored before half on a short run, but the Flyers led 7-6 at intermission. The Panthers took a third-quarter lead on a 28-yard TD pass from Van Buren to Ryan Manning.



East St. Louis grabbed a 13-12 third-quarter lead on a 15-yard quarterback keep by Robert Battle.

After the St. Frances score, the Flyer had one last shot, but the Panthers' defense, which has been among the best in high school football over the past three seasons, came up with a big sack of Battles and forced a turnover on downs to ice the game.

St. Frances Academy (1-0) heads to Texas on Sept. 3 for a battle against DeSoto (1-0) while East St. Louis (0-1) hosts in-state foes Christian Brothers (1-0).

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