East St. Louis had two touchdowns nullified by penalties and another sail through the hands of a receiver in Saturday’s Class 7A championship game against Geneva.
The Flyers also committed 19 penalties for 166 yards, both title-game records for any class.
In the end, none of that mattered.
The Flyers scored 27 unanswered points in the second half and rolled to a 33-14 victory over the previously unbeaten Vikings to win their seventh championship and first since 1991.
“All gas, no brakes — that’s how I like to say it,” Flyers wide receiver Terry Hawthorne said.
East St. Louis (13-1) totaled 356 yards of offense to 189 for Geneva.
“Things were a little slow in the first half, but we came out in the second half fired up and ready to go,” said wide receiver Kraig Appleton, who made a leaping catch at the goal line for a 42-yard touchdown that put East St. Louis ahead 19-7 early in the fourth quarter.
A minute later Hawthorne grabbed his seventh interception of the playoffs to set up another score, a 2-yard dive by Courtney Molton, for a 26-7 cushion with 9 minutes 27 seconds to play.
“We just started feeling it,” Hawthorne said.
Keante Minor made it 33-7 with a 10-yard touchdown catch from quarterback Detchauz Wray with 4:27 left.
Wray, a junior, completed 10 of 20 passes for 198 yards and four touchdowns, one each to Hawthorne, Appleton, Minor and fullback Chris Murphy.
“We have a lot of speed,” Appleton said. “We had the will to win.”
Geneva (13-1) was making its first state title-game appearance since 1975, when the Vikings lost to Metamora in 3A.
“They were unbelievable,” Geneva running back Michael Ratay said of the Flyers. “They were flying to the ball. They were the fastest team I ever played against in my life.
“We had a great year. Coming in we were 13-0. You couldn’t ask for more than that. We just couldn’t do it.”
Ratay had 26 carries for 91 yards and caught a 21-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Beitzel (14 of 24 for 119 yards and 2 TDs) with 43 seconds to play to complete the scoring. He finished the season with 2,855 rushing yards and 47 total touchdowns.
“We kept fighting all the way to the end,” Ratay said.
