Chester scored three touchdowns on its first four offensive plays of the game, as the Yellow Jackets’ rushing attack ran over Elverado-Trico for a 68-6 victory Saturday afternoon in Elkville.
“We were able to do some good things offensively despite missing a couple of offensive linemen,” said Chester coach Bryan Lee. “Our running backs ran hard, and Elverado-Trico threw a lot at us defensively. Our linemen adjusted well and did a great job blocking.”
While being the heavy underdog, Elverado-Trico got some early momentum as Dalton Porter ran for a gain of 16 yards on the first play from scrimmage.
However, the Chester defense tightened up, and Porter was only able to gain a total of five yards over the next three plays as the Falcons faced a fourth down and five yards to go.
Elverado-Trico quarterback Alex McGill completed a pass to Randy Goetz on fourth down, but the pass only went for three yards, and the Falcons turned the ball over on downs.
Chester started its first drive of the game from its own 40-yard line. John Baughman took the first handoff and outran the Elverado-Trico defense for a 60-yard touchdown run. Seth Johnson added the extra kick, and with 9:35 left in the first quarter, the Yellow Jackets were up 7-0.
After an onside kick attempt by Chester was recovered by the Falcons, the squad put together a three-play 50-yard drive to score only its second touchdown of the year.
Porter got the drive  started off by breaking loose for a 41-yard run. Two plays later, McGill connected with Goetz for a nine-yard touchdown strike.
Elverado-Trico went for the lead, but the two-point conversion was stopped short, and Chester held on to its lead 7-6 with 8:28 left in the first quarter.
Elverado-Trico attempted its own onside kick, but the Jackets recovered and took over possession from the Falcon 45-yard line.
Once again, it took just one play for the Chester offense to get into the endzone—a 35-yard touchdown run by sophomore Stephen Roth. Johnson missed the extra point, and with 8:18 remaining in the first quarter, Chester’s lead increased to 13-6. The touchdown was the first points of what turned out to be a 61-0 run for the Jackets.
The Falcons fumbled away the ball on their next play from scrimmage, and Roth recovered it for Chester.
After a run by Zane Wallace, which was stopped for no gain, Clint Cole scored from 25 yards out. Roth ran in the two-point conversion, as Chester’s lead was 21-6 with 7:20 left in the opening quarter.
Elverado-Trico put together another impressive drive on its next possession as McGill completed passes of 31 and 15 yards to get his team to the Chester 20-yard line.
The scoring threat ended four plays later when Cole intercepted a pass by McGill in the endzone and returned it to the Chester seven-yard line.
Despite being backed up against the shadow of their own endzone, the Jackets marched down the field 97 yards on 10 plays, which ate up over five minutes of clock. The drive was capped off by a 35-yard touchdown run by Baughman, his second of the game. Johnson added the extra point, and Chester’s lead increased to 28-6 at the end of the opening quarter.
The Falcons picked up two first downs and 20 yards before an intercepted pass by sophomore Jake Cowan gave the ball back to Chester.
The Jackets strung together another impressive scoring drive on their next possession. Chester marched down the field 68 yards on 11 plays that lasted just over six minutes. Chester quarterback Zach Lochhead finished off the drive with a four-yard touchdown pass to Justin Woodward. Johnson’s extra point kick was successful, and the Jackets held a commanding 35-6 advantage at the break.
Chester didn’t slow down much in the second half. The Yellow Jackets opened the half with a 29-yard pass play from Lochhead to Baughman, then Cole took the next play to the house with a 51-yard touchdown run. The kick failed, and with 11:43 remaining in the third quarter, Chester led 41-6.
Looking to get back into the game, Elverado-Trico mounted a 14-play drive that gained three first downs and 46 yards. Facing a fourth down with three yards to go, McGill tossed a pass into the endzone,however, it was dropped by a Falcon receiver, and Chester took back control of the ball.
Baughman put the continuous clock mercy rule into effect as he broke free for an 81-yard touchdown run, as Chester went up 48-6 with 4:05 left in the third quarter.
“Against the top ranked team in the conference, we gave up in the second half,” said Elverado-Trico coach Duffy Sanders. “One thing we can’t do is give up. This should have been a 35-14 game but instead we let them score 68 points on us. It was nothing but positives in the first half and then we just quit in the second half.”
The Yellow Jackets would score three touchdowns in the fourth quarter for the final 68-6 score.
Freshman Joel Clendenin scored on a 66-yard run with 10:51 left in the game to push the lead to 55-6.
Tyler Jones scored on a five-yard run, and Clendenin wrapped up the scoring by recovering a fumble and returning it 35 yards for the score.
The Chester offense finished with 543 yards of total offense with 510 of that coming on the ground.
Baughman finished with 188 yards on just four carries, while Cole had 102 yards on six carries. Clendenin went for 89 yards on five carries, and Roth added 87 yards on six carries.
Zach Lochhead was 2-for-4 passing for 33 yards.
Elverado-Trico finished with 249 yards of total offense with 141 yards coming from the passing attack.
McGill was 14-for-24 passing for 141 yards and two interceptions. Bryce Mathis was the team’s leading receiver with four catches for 57 yards.
Porter led the ground attack for Elverado-Trico with 72 yards on nine carries.
Chester improves to 4-0 with the win, while Elverado-Trico falls to 0-4.
The Yellow Jackets will travel to take on Johnston City (4-0) Friday night. The Falcons will host Vienna (0-4) that same night.