Game Preview: Whitehaven at East St. Louis

In 2011, the Whitehaven Tigers celebrated Labor Day weekend with a win over a nationally ranked opponent nearly 300 miles away from their Elvis Presley Boulevard home. On Sunday they will look to continue the tradition when they travel back to East St. Louis for the City of Champions Classic.  The game against national power East St. Louis High School will be the highlight in the 4 game event.

The East St. Louis Flyers are a favorite to win the state championship in Illinois’ highest classification.  They return 8 starters on offense, and 8 starters on defense.  The Flyers are anchored by 6’, 200 lb running back Natereance Strong, who last season ran for over 750 yards and scored 7 touchdowns, as a freshman.  He was named to the MaxPrep Freshman All-American Team. 
   The Flyers opened their season last week on the road against another national power, Kansas City’s Rockhurst (losing 20-12).  Albert Samaha of RiverFrontTimes.com wrote an excellent (and long) piece on the football team last November.

Whitehaven is returning from a state finals loss that ended the 2011 season and back-to-back wins to open this season. The Tigers have returning University of Mississippi commit Mark Dotson who has rushed for over 300 yards already. However, the staple to this Whitehaven team is its defense which only allowed 6 points all season.  Last year in the Classic, Whitehaven topped Chicago St. Rita in the same game.

Notes:

• Depending on which record book you look at, East St. Louis has either the most wins all-time, or tied for 15^th with over 800 wins since 1897.
• BND.com previews the game here.