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Yellow Jacket rally comes up short

Posted October 21, 2016 11:00 pm

By Pete Spitler Editor@heraldtrib.com

The Chester Yellow Jackets almost pulled it off.

After a disastrous first half that saw Chester trail 36-8 at halftime, the Yellow Jackets rallied the troops in the second half and closed to within a touchdown, 36-28, with 5:06 remaining.

But touchdowns by Eldorado's Trey Vessel and Jacob Traxler gave the Eagles a 22-point cushion that Chester could not overcome in a 50-36 loss last Friday.

"We talked to our kids about not panicking, let's just play the game," said Eldorado coach Brandon Hampton, when asked what he told his players when the Eagles' lead got hacked down to just eight points. "Just settle in and keep playing.

"We talk about 'holding the rope' all the time in our program, which means sometimes the rope burns, but we've got to make sure we hold on to it, we pull it in the right direction and when adversity hit (Friday), our kids responded."

The numbers weren't even close in the first half, which saw Eldorado outgain Chester 343 to 100 - including a 305 to 73 ratio on the ground - in building its 28-point halftime advantage.

"The first half, they were hitting us with stuff we didn't necessarily really prime for or prepare for," said Chester coach Jeremy Blechle, who called the first half "frightening." "The trap-and-dart was one of their plays that weren't run that often, and they run 15-20 total plays and they run them all really, really good and they know who to block and know exactly what they're doing."

Three Eagle players - Vassel (127), Payton Price (180) and Jacob Traxler (111) - all went over the 100-yard mark rushing, as Eldorado finished with 419 rushing yards for the game.

"There's a couple of things going on there," Hampton said. "One, I think coach Clark did a great job of mixing it up and relying on different kids at different times.

"Everybody's going to be amped up to stop Payton and Trey, and some of our other playmakers in Traxler and Max (Kaisar) really hurt Chester (Friday)."

In comparison, Chester senior Jake Golding had 127 of the Yellow Jackets' 166 yards on the ground. He also caught four passes for 54 yards and finished with eight tackles defensively in his final high school game.

"The kids didn't give up, didn't die and that takes a lot of heart," Blechle said. "It takes a whole lot of discipline because it wouldn't take much to let the wheels fall off against a team like that...fast, physical Eldorado."

A 3-yard touchdown run by Yellow Jacket quarterback Nick Meyer with 9:55 left in the third quarter opened the door for Chester, which got another score from the sophomore - a 1-yard plunge - with 10:56 remaining in the game after a lengthy Yellow Jacket drive.

After another Yellow Jacket defensive stop, Chester's Joey Stahlheber hauled in a 37-yard touchdown pass (which went between the hands of the defender Price) from Meyer to cut the deficit to eight points after the two-point conversion failed.

But the Chester defense wasn't able to stuff the Eagles again as Eldorado drove the field and scored on a 4-yard run by Vessel with 1:07 left. On the Yellow Jackets' ensuing possession, Traxler intercepted a Meyer pass and returned it 20 yards to the house for a 50-28 lead.

Chester added its final touchdown on a 6-yard touchdown pass to Chris Lang with 20.8 seconds left.

Meyer finished with two touchdowns and 176 yards passing for the Yellow Jackets, who ended their season at 4-5 and will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2011.

"I'm going to hit it hard," Blechle said of the focus of the offseason. "Accountability would be the key.

"Some situations, I handled wrong. I'm an honest man and I'm going to own up to that. There's some situations that I did not handle correctly."

Blechle also did not commit to next year, saying only he would take more time for family.

"Not to start a rumor by any means, alright, the wife has definitely said it's time to give something up and turn something in and focus more on family," he said. "So, find a way to balance that."

Blechle was asked to give an anecdote about an eight-member senior class that went to the Elite Eight as sophomores in 2014.

"It is a group that is dynamic," he said. "That play with a ton of heart and had a ton of talent."

Looking at the season as a whole, Blechle offered his thoughts.

"I wish we could have done more," he said. "I have a void in my stomach because we're not playing (this) week and that sucks.

"That sucks bad."

With the victory, Eldorado (8-1) won a share of the Black Diamond Conference championship with Fairfield and will likely earn a home game to start the playoffs next week.

TEAM STATS:

1st Downs - CHS: 18, ELD 21

Rush-Yds - CHS: 37-166, ELD: 50-419

Pass Yds - CHS: 176, ELD: 38

C-A-I - CHS: 13-22-1, ELD: 2-5-1

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS:

Rushing - Chester: Jake Golding 13-127, Chris Lang 9-10, Nick Meyer 12-22, Martin 3-7.

Passing - Chester: Nick Meyer 13-22-1 - 176.

Receiving - Chester: Jake Golding 4-54, Savion Smith 3-55, Demontae Martin 3-21, Chris Lang 2-9.

Tackles - Chester: William Morefield 12, Drake Bollman 11, Jake Golding 8, Joey Stahlheber 6, Nick Heffernan 5.

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