They’re the defending Illinois 7A state champions. They’ve won four straight games by a combined count of 213-46.
East St. Louis RB Courtney Molton has surpassed 1,000 yards.
File photo by Jim Owens
But the way the Flyers of East St. Louis High School tell it, their play is well below par.
Especially with arch-rival East (Belleville) coming to town Saturday for a Nike 5 Days 2 Friday special (see blogs, features and video from MaxPreps reporters Nick Reasons and Karl Wilhelm.
“We’re winning but it hasn't been up to our standards,” East St. Louis quarterback and Nebraska-bound Detchauz Wray told Reasons and Wilhelm. “We’re not playing as a team.”
Said star running back Courtney Molton: “We’re playing well, but not well enough. We’re not playing physical enough.”
East St. Louis (4-2) expects to win every week so when it opened the season with humbling losses to nationally-ranked Elder (Cincinnati) 49-28 and Middletown (Ohio) 27-16, the Fryers did some soul searching.
They responded with a huge 77-7 win over Alton before consecutive victories over Edwardsville (48-15), O’Fallon (44-0) and Belleville West (44-24).
Molton, filling in for the injured and highly-touted 6-foot-2, 215-pound junior Vincent Artebridge, certainly has more than picked up the slack with 1,081 yards and 15 touchdowns. He had 227 yards against Elder and 192 versus Alton.
Wray has been almost equally effective passing, completing 66 of 117 for 1,081 yards, 10 touchdowns and no interceptions. Keante Minor is Wray’s best target with 20 catches for 310 yards and four TDSs.
“We’re looking OK, but we can do a lot better.” East St. Louis coach Darren Sunkett. “We need to learn how to be more physical.”
East (5-1) figures to be extremely physical after enduring its first loss of the season, 17-7 to O’Fallon last week . To that point, East had outscored five previous opponents 126-38.
“They think this is one of their best teams in a long time,” Sunkett said. “Add that to it being a rivalry game and we'll have to be very well prepared."
The Lancers are led by junior tailback Darnell Stevenson.
“They’re coming off a loss and we’re the defending champions so you know they’re going to come after us hard,” Sunkett said.
E-mail Mitch Stephens at mstephens@maxpreps.com.
