The East St. Louis Flyers will head out to challenge the IMG Academy Ascenders at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with East St. Louis sitting on five straight wins and IMG Academy on eight (dating back to last season).
On Friday, East St. Louis blew past O'Fallon, posting a 48-6 victory. With the Flyers ahead 41-0 at the half, the game was all but over already.
Reece Shanklin
| 10/17/25 vs O'Fallon | 337 |
| 10/11/24 vs Alton | 199 |
| 10/03/25 @ Edwardsville | 151 |
| 08/28/25 vs Bergen Catholic | 109 |
| 09/26/25 vs Belleville West | 91 |
East St. Louis got their win on the backs of several key players, but it was Reece Shanklin out in front who threw for 337 yards while completing 84.6% of his passes. Those 337 passing yards gave Shanklin a new career-high. Kortez Rupert also helped with two touchdowns in total.
Wins are hard to come by when you can't run the rock, something East St. Louis proved: they limited O'Fallon to a paltry 2.2 yards per carry. The team can thank Caleb Brown for the heroic effort on defense: he. East St. Louis hasn't allowed more than 8.5 yards per carry in three consecutive matchups.
East St. Louis didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Raheem Floyd and Dakarai Weaver. Floyd is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made five or more in each of the last five games he's played. East St. Louis got some further help from Brown: he picked up a sack and made 11 total tackles (3.0 for loss).
Meanwhile, IMG Academy didn't have too much trouble with Varsity Opponent on Friday as they won 41-24.
East St. Louis' record now sits at 5-2. As for IMG Academy, their record is now 7-0.
East St. Louis and IMG Academy were neck-and-neck in their previous meeting back in October of 2024, but East St. Louis came up empty-handed after a 14-13 defeat. Can the Flyers avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
