EAST ST. LOUIS - The East St. Louis Senior High School football team (10-2) is no stranger to the position they're in. They once again find themselves in the Class 6A semifinals, once again facing an undefeated team. Luckily, for the team they'll be facing, history is on their side.
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The Flyers will be taking on Lemont High School (12-0) tomorrow afternoon, November 19, at 2 p.m. in Lemont.
The last time the two teams met was just last season. Lemont came into the quarterfinal game 11-0 but was defeated by East Side by a score of 42-21. The Flyers went on to take second at state that season.
The season before COVID-19 was the last time the Flyers won a state championship when they went 14-0 in the 2019 season. It was the ninth state title in program history.
This year, they'll be looking to make it an even 10 and have a good shot of doing it.
This postseason, now three games in, the Flyers have yet to be scored on after putting up scores of 71-0, 40-0, and 45-0. That's a 52-point-per-game scoring average while not slipping up defensively.
Should the Flyers win tomorrow, they would make their third trip to the University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium in four years.
The Flyers are led by their mobile quarterback, junior Robert "Pop" Battle. He's scored 10 rushing touchdowns himself while throwing for another 21. He's thrown for 1,892 yards and has an even 60% completion rate. On 235 attempts, he's only thrown four interceptions.
His favorite target is sophomore running back TaRyan Martin who's brought in 17 TDs. Martin is also the team's top rusher with 1,033 yards on 139 attempts for a 7.4 yard average.
Battle has ran for 648 yards while sophomore running back Larevious Woods has racked up 761 yards rushing and 13 TDs.
Overall, the offense has combined for 81 touchdown this season.
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