East St. Louis struck for 27 unanswered points in the second half, erasing a 7-6 Geneva halftime lead en route to a 33-14 win in the Class 7A football title game at Champaign.

Two big pass plays helped East St. Louis pull away to a 19-7 lead with 10:28 remaining in the game.

A 10-yard TD pass on fourth down and goal put the Flyers ahead 12-7 three minutes into the second half, then the Flyers struck on a 41-yard scoring pass on the third play of the fourth quarter.

Geneva's bid to answer resulted in an intererception and return to the Vikings' 5-yard line with 9:36 left, followed by a touchdown run two plays later.

Down 33-6, the Vikings (13-1) showed fight to the finish with an 11-play, 66-yard scoring drive. A 21-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Beitzel to Michael Ratay with 43 seconds left capped the drive.

The touchdown was the 47th of Ratay's amazing season, but he was held to 91 yards on 26 carries after averaging 9.5 yards per carry over the first 13 games (amassing 2,764 rushing yards).

"(East St. Louis) set a lot of people in the box and their defensive line was really fast," Ratay said. "Their safeties also tackled low, and it's tough to break low tackles like that.

"But (the season) was a great experience. Playing football is what we love to do, and we did it for 14 weeks...longer than most teams in the state."

East St. Louis initially jumped ahead of Geneva 6-0 on the final play of the first quarter, but the Vikings wasted little time answering the challenge.

A 64-yard touchdown pass from Detchauz Wray to Chris Murphy on third down and seven put the Flyers ahead.

But after a missed extra point by East St. Louis, a kickoff return to the East St. Louis 44-yard line set up Geneva's answer, a 15-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Baetzel to Michael Santacaterina that put the Vikings up 7-6 with 8:59 left in the first half.

Ratay had runs of eight and 10 yards on the first scoring drive.

East St. Louis drove from its own 42-yard line in the final 33 seconds of the half, but a potential 25-yard touchdown pass was nullified by an illegal block. The Flyers had another 42-yard touchdown run in the third quarter erased by a penalty.