Prairie Ridge, East St. Louis prepare for rematch of 2019 Class 6A state championship

Prairie Ridge coach Chris Schremp understands the immense challenge that awaits his team Saturday as the Wolves get ready to meet an East St. Louis offensive line with four of five starters weighing 300-plus pounds.

“Looking at it on film, it is quite intimidating,” Schremp said. “We preach fire off the ball low and stay low, and that’s exactly what we have to do. If we stand up and try and take on any one of those guys, the game will be over quick.”

The No. 2-seeded Wolves (12-1) face their biggest challenge of the season when they take on No. 6 East St. Louis (11-2) in the Class 6A state championship game at 1 p.m. Saturday at the University of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium in Champaign.

Prairie Ridge is appearing in its first championship game since 2019 and fifth in program history – all since 2011. The Flyers are playing in their third consecutive title game. East St. Louis fell to Cary-Grove 37-36 in last year’s 6A championship game and beat Prairie Ridge 43-21 in 2019.

One of the first things Schremp did to prepare for East St. Louis was look at film from last year’s 6A title game.

“I’ve talked to [C-G coach] Brad [Seaburg] already,” Schremp said Monday. “As a coach, you’re always trying to gain whatever advantage you can. Their offense is something we don’t see in the Fox Valley, just the speed that they have all over the field.

“[We have to] put pressure on their quarterback, but also stop their unbelievable wall of an offensive line and slow that running game down.”

East St. Louis coach Darren Sunkett joked after last year’s state championship against Cary-Grove that another team needed to knock the Trojans out of the playoffs so the Flyers wouldn’t have to see the triple-option again.

Now his team must find a way to slow down the state’s single-season rushing leader in Wolves QB Tyler Vasey.

“Very similar offenses. Really, they are copycat offenses,” Sunkett said. “Hopefully we can do a lot better as far as slowing these guys down. We didn’t do a good job of that last year, and [it’s] something we’ve been working on since the offseason. We kind of had a feeling that we’d see this type of offense again.”

Sunkett said the Flyers can’t simulate what the Wolves do on offense.

“The main thing is figuring out their blocking schemes,” Sunkett said. “Their quarterback is the main guy, so we have to slow him down and force the ball out of his hands and make other guys beat us who haven’t carried the ball as much.

“We want to key on [Vasey] and get the ball out of his hands. Get them in second-and-long, third-and-long situations and make them do things they’re not used to doing.”

When the Wolves are on defense, they also will have their hands full.

The Flyers – who average 45.5 points a game on offense and fewer than nine points a game on defense, including three shutouts to start the playoffs – are led by sophomore running back TaRyan Martin, who has 1,382 yards and 21 touchdowns.

Junior quarterback Robert Battle has thrown for 1,917 yards, along with 21 touchdowns and five interceptions. Battle also has 670 yards and 10 TDs on the ground, and running back Larevious Woods has run for 761 yards and 12 TDs.

Jesse Watson leads the receivers with 455 yards and eight touchdowns. Christopher Bennett has 437 yards and three scores, and Dejerrian Miller has 377 yards and four TDs. On defense, East St. Louis has three players with 10-plus sacks: linebacker Dominic Dixon (11 sacks), linebacker Antwon Hayden (10) and defensive lineman Keshawn Hayden (10).

A big key will be getting positive yards on first down, Schremp said.

“We call it in our offense ‘staying on schedule,’ ” Schremp said. “Getting off the ball. Gaining 3 or 4 yards. We don’t want to get into passing situations against East St. Louis because that’s what they do best.”

Schremp said the biggest takeaway from the 2019 championship against East St. Louis was seeing that the Wolves can compete with anyone.

He hopes that lesson sticks with the current group of Wolves.

“Scheme-wise, I don’t think there’s anything we learned from playing them you can’t get off of regular film,” Schremp said. “I think the biggest thing for our guys was seeing us compete against a team that has such a high level of talent. Seeing that we can compete against a 6-6, 350-pound tackle and we can be successful.

“That’s the biggest thing ... those guys seeing we really had a chance to win that last game against them.”