BELLEVILLE – Quarterback Kendrick Lyons was 16-of-24 passing for 309 yards and five touchdowns, three of them to Armaad Sharp, as East St. Louis opened defense of its Southwestern Conference championship with a 40-0 win over Belleville East Saturday afternoon at Charlie Woodford Field.
It was the first time this season East Side had played against local competition, going 3-0 against teams from Chicagoland, Georgia, and Philadelphia in the opening three weeks, going 3-0 against very good national competition.
Against the Lancers, Lyons completed his first two TD passes in the first quarter to give the Flyers a 14-0 lead, then in the second. Ahmad Coleman ran in for East Side’s only rushing touchdown to make it 20-0 before Lyons threw another touchdown pass to make the score 27-0 for the Flyers at halftime
In the second half, the Flyers got two more touchdown passes from Lyons to clinch the 40-0 win to open the conference season opener for East Side.
Sharp caught a total of five passes for 120 yards and three touchdowns, while Ronnie GoMiller also had five receptions for 140 yards and two scores, and Christopher Bennett, Jr. had three catches for 81 yards and a touchdown. Coleman ran for 21 yards and a touchdown to lead the Flyers’ ground attack.
Kingston Jones was eight-of-23 passing for 85 yards for East, while Jaedon Edwards ran for 28 yards, and Kyle Henry had two receptions for 54 yards.
The Lancers are now 2-2, and play at Alton next Friday night at 7 p.m., while the Flyers are now 4-0, and play at O’Fallon next Saturday afternoon in a 1 p.m kickoff.
In another result from Saturday, Breese Central won at Freeburg 42-0. while on Friday night, Pawnee won over Metro-East Lutheran in an eight-man game 52-19.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
