Meyer's record night leads Chester Frosh past Eldorado
<span>ELDORADO - Braden Attebury was stopped short of the end zone on Eldorado's conversion try in overtime, and the Chester Freshman team escaped Boz Adams Field on Thursday with a 50-48 victory.</span>
<span>Chester quarterback Curt Meyer threw for a record-setting 234 yards and three touchdowns, while Wyatt Roth's 10-yard TD plunge in the extra session stood up as the winner.</span>
<span>"It was awesome," Chester coach Jake Cowan said of the victory. "From top to bottom, from Player 1 to Player 15, everybody gave 110 percent and that's all we can ask for.</span>
<span>"Everybody played their hearts out tonight and dug in when we needed it."</span>
<span>Connor Watt's 5-yard run with 2:03 left in regulation tied the game at 42 for Eldorado and the conversion try failed. Starting on its own 15 with 1:54 left, Chester got to the Eagles' 35 with 11 seconds remaining.</span>
<span>Eldorado's Connor Watt then picked off a Meyer pass at the goal line to force overtime. Chester got the ball first to start the extra session and scored on its first play.</span>
<span>Clayton Richelman, who had 146 yards receiving with two touchdowns, then hauled in the eventual game-winning conversion on a pass from Meyer.</span>
<span>"It's a 'W'," said Meyer, when asked what the victory meant. "It means happiness."</span>
<span>Eldorado held a 24-22 lead at halftime and the teams played a back-and-forth second half that resulted in a 36-all tie heading into the fourth quarter.</span>
<span>Nick Heffernan's 37-yard touchdown reception with 9:42 left in regulation gave Chester a 42-36 lead after the conversion failed.</span>
<span>Eldorado converted two fourth down plays, including a fourth-and-2 on the Chester 19, on the Eagles' final offensive drive of the quarter.</span>
<span>"We've had two of these close games where we were on the wrong side," said Cowan, referencing Chester's close losses to Johnston City and Sesser-Valier-Waltonville-Woodlawn earlier in the season. "Our team has become so mentally tough and we never gave up.</span>
<span>"We had our backs against the wall all night long and we just kept making plays and that was the story of the night."</span>
<span>Roth finished with 119 yards rushing and two touchdowns for Chester, which held a 22-8 lead after Richelman hauled in an 81-yard pass from Meyer with 8:42 left in the second quarter.</span>
<span>Jack Hathaway had 69 yards and two scores in the first half for the Yellow Jackets, who finished with 16 first downs and 471 total yards.</span>
<span>But the story was Meyer, who surpassed Jordan Berner's 160 passing yards set on August 27, 2012 in a 22-14 win over Vienna-Goreville.</span>
<span>Richelman's receiving total is a new single-game mark as well, eclipsing Hunter Howie's 126 yards in that same game.</span>
<span>"From start to finish, he's a leader of our team," Cowan said of Meyer. "He was absolutely awesome tonight.</span>
<span>"He made good decisions on every single ball and had two interceptions at the end of each half, but I told him to put it into the end zone and he was at the top of his game."</span>
<span>Defensively, Roth led Chester with 15 tackles, including three for loss, while Nick Heffernan and Jack Hathaway each had 13.</span>
<span>Alex Hamilton had seven, while Mason Westerman and Brady Kelkhoff each had five.</span>
<span>Up next for the Chester freshmen is Monday's Junior Varsity contest back at Eldorado, followed by a frosh-soph combo game against Fairfield next Thursday.</span>