Photos: East St. Louis defeats Edwardsville to sweep Southwestern Conference slate

Marquise Palmer led Flyers' defensive effort with 10 tackles, three sacks

Visiting Edwardsville hung tough with top-ranked East St. Louis for most of three quarters on Friday night, but the Flyers proved they are still the top dogs of the Southwestern Conference.

East St. Louis scored 20 points in the second half to pull away for a 26-7 victory against the visiting Tigers.

East St. Louis (6-2 overall, 5-0 in league play) leaned on its big offensive line and strong rushing attack to hand Edwardsville (6-2 overall, 3-2 in conference) its second loss of the season.

Sophomore running backs TaRyan Martin (97 yards rushing and three touchdowns) and Larevious Woods (130 yards rushing) topped 200 yards on the ground. Quarterback Robert Battle added 68 yards with his feet and passed for 110 yards and a touchdown. 

East St. Louis led 12-0 in the third quarter on two Martin TD runs before Edwardsville scored on a 40-yard pass from Jake Curry to Joey DeMare with 6 minutes and 28 seconds remaining in the quarter.

The Tigers cut the deficit to 12-7, but would not score again. 

East St. Louis closed out the quarter with Martin's third touchdown scamper of the night to increase its advantage to 18-7 and then Battle connected with Rico Bond for a touchdown pass – and ran in a 2-point conversion – late in the fourth quarter to stretch the winning margin to 19 points.

Here is a look at the game from photographer Ricky Slaughter: 

Edwardsville at East St. Louis football

Photos from Ricky Slaughter