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Yellow Jackets get back on track against Foxes

Posted September 03, 2016 11:00 pm

By Pete Spitler Staff Writer

Now this is what we're talking about.

Chester (1-1) got touchdowns from five different players, while the Yellow Jacket defense held Hamilton County to only 41 yards of offense in a 44-0 win last week at W.O. Smith Field.

"I think there's room for improvement, but what we did (Friday) really showed the Black Diamond Conference what we have in store for them," said Chester senior fullback Jake Golding, who ran for 120 yards and a touchdown while racking up 11 tackles (three for loss) and a sack on defense. "Hopefully, if we can keep it up like this, hopefully we can prevail and do good in the playoffs."

Like last week, Chester was whistled for more than 100 yards in penalties, but this time the Yellow Jackets didn't let them affect the outcome of the game.

Through the first two weeks of the season, Chester has been penalized 23 times for 208 yards.

"We put people in space so they have to block in space and have to block longer," said Chester co-offensive coordinator Billy Belton, who was filling in while head coach Jeremy Blechle served his one-game suspension for being ejected in Week 1 against Fairfield. "So that's causing us to get more holding penalties and we just need to get our hands inside and we've got to let go instead of holding that jersey."

"It's just something different they haven't done in awhile," Belton continued." Before, it was pound the ball, hold the block for two seconds and then the guy's gone, but now, the guys have to hold the block for six seconds and we've been working on that."

After its first two drives stalled deep in Hamilton County territory, Chester got on the scoreboard with an eight-yard run by quarterback Nick Meyer, who also ran in the conversion to give the Yellow Jackets a 8-0 lead with 2:01 left in the first quarter.

Meyer started in place of his older brother, Curt, who was held out to continue recovery from an ankle injury suffered against the Mules.

"He probably could have went (Friday), but we are kinda being safe with it," Belton said of Curt. "We're going to try again on Tuesday and we'll see where he's at."

In his place, Nick went 3-for-10 for 93 yards and his first varsity touchdown, a 43-yard pass to Demontae Martin that gave Chester a 14-0 lead after the conversion failed.

The Yellow Jackets took a 22-0 lead into the locker room at halftime thanks to the first of two touchdown runs by Chris Lang.

"We watched film, tried to prep the best we can, we weren't exactly sure what kind of defense they were going to come out in," said Hamilton County coach Brian Blades. "That one kind of threw us for a little stump.

"We had an idea. We thought they'd come out and run a 5-2 and they gave us more of a 4-4, 6-2 look, so that stumped our offense."

After a scoreless third quarter, Chester further distanced itself from the Foxes with a five-yard run by Golding six seconds into the final frame. Lang added his second touchdown, a 20-yarder, with 8:27 to go to turn the game into a rout.

On the other sideline, Blades said personnel changes to his offensive line didn't go quite as hoped.

"We've got to work on something offensively different up front," Blades said. "We struggled and I even made some changes from last week.

"We had a different center this week than we did last week and he wasn't as quick off the ball. But we tried something different, mixed up our line a little bit, and it didn't seem like we got the same push we got off them as we did last week."

While Golding had a dominant game defensively for Chester, junior Nick Heffernan also had a standout performance with nine tackles (three solo) as he continues a successful return to football after missing his entire sophomore season with a neck injury.

"I've done my job," Heffernan said, when asked how he felt about his performance in the first two games. "Playing for the team, doing my job getting wins."

Heffernan said his personal goals for the season were to be a "defensive monster," unselfish and "play for the team."

This week, Chester makes the trip south to Vienna on Saturday to take on the Vienna-Goreville Eagles.

V-G fell to Johnston City, 41-7, last Friday and the Eagles (0-2) are in a brutal part of their schedule where they face three of the perennial conference favorites (Eldorado, Johnston City and Chester) to start the season.

Kickoff in Vienna is scheduled for 1 p.m.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS:

RUSHING - CHS: Chris Lang 15-94 (2TD), Demontae Martin 9-71, Jake Golding 12-120 (TD), Drake Bollman 3-32, Nick Meyer 8-16 (TD), Nick Heffernan 1-8, Savion Smith 4-23 (TD)

PASSING - CHS: Nick Meyer 3-10-0 - 93 (TD)

RECEIVING - CHS: Savion Smith 1-18, Demontae Martin 1-43, Chris Lang 1-32.

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