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).