Batavia can't sneak out win
EAST ST. LOUIS -- For a brief moment Saturday afternoon, Batavia looked as though it might upset East St. Louis in the first round of the Illinois High School Association Class 7A state football playoffs.
But on a fourth down and 1 from the Flyers' 20-yard-line with 2 minutes and 10 seconds left in the game and the Bulldogs trailing 27-21, Jordan Coffey tried a quarterback sneak. Coffey, who was impressive throwing the ball all day, was stopped for no gain turning the ball over on downs.
That play ended Batavia's season as it lost to the Flyers 27-21 at Clyde C. Jordan Stadium. The sixth-seeded Bulldogs, last year's runner-up in Class 6A, finished at 5-5.
East St. Louis, seeded third and No. 3 in the Associated Press Class 7A state poll, improved to 9-1 and has won nine straight games. It will travel to No. 2-seed Moline next weekend to face the Maroons on a day and time to be announced on Monday.
"That wasn't the play we called," said Batavia coach Mike Gaspari. "He always has that option. He made a lot of great decisions throughout the day. A number of great audibles there were very effective. That one unfortunately didn't quite go our way. That's OK."
With Batavia leading 21-19, the Flyers stopped the Bulldogs at their own 10 forcing Jordan Church to punt into the wind. Quarterback Detchauz Wray sneaked in from the 1 five plays later and hit wide receiver Terry Hawthorne for a 2-point conversion with 8:21 remaining.
Four East St. Louis fumbles led to three Batavia touchdowns -- two coming in the first quarter. The first one was a 9-yard pass from Coffey to Ryan Webb and the second on a 3-yard run by J.R. Kabba.
The Flyers countered with two scores themselves in the quarter but trailed 14-13. One touchdown was a 62-yard wide receiver screen from Wray to Hawthorne and the other was a 14-yard run by running back Courtney Molton. Kicker Glen Faulkner made one of the two extra points.
"We've gotten takeaways all year," Gaspari said. "We've been very good at that. But we knew we were going to have a hard time driving the field against them consistently. They're a very good team. The speed level is a little bit better than anything we have."
East St. Louis went in front 19-14 when Wray and Hawthorne connected again on a wide receiver screen for 12 yards with 10:48 remaining in the first half. The Flyers led 19-14 at halftime.
"I thought we executed pretty well at times and did what we needed to do," Gaspari said. "We just didn't score enough points."
The Bulldogs jumped in front 21-19 with 9:06 to go in the third quarter when Coffey scored on 1-yard sneak. That set the stage Wray's eventual game-winner.
"I'm extremely proud of them," said Gaspari. "They've battled hard all year long. Today was no exception. We don't have anything to feel bad about. We got beat by a great football team."
Coffey was 20 of 34 for 216 yards with 1 touchdown Receiver Erich Zeddies caught 8 passes for 110 yards. Brian Krolikowski led the Batavia ground game with 32 yards as the Bulldogs rushed for only 60.
East St. Louis countered with 354 offensive yards as Molton had 155 on the ground and Wray added 148 through the air.