CHESNEE, SC - Chesnee Strong. Two simple words, but two powerful words the Chesnee community has used as a rallying cry the past few days following the tragic events this past Friday.
On Monday evening, the Chesnee football team returned to the playing field for the first time since the tragedy and put on a performance the community could be proud of defeating rival Landrum 40-21. "This win means a lot to us after the tragedy this past Friday," said Chesnee's Kaylob Blanton. "We felt like we had the city on our back and we're praying for the families of all those involved." Blanton's teammate Aiden Allen echoed the sentiments about how special this game was for the community. "This win was special for our community," said Allen. "We took a really tough loss last year to Landrum, it felt good to get it back this year." Chesnee head football coach Clay Lewis was proud of how his team handled themselves over the last few days and how they responded on Monday night. "For them to handle these past few days the way they have and to perform tonight like that the way they did, I'm very proud of them," said Lewis. When the Eagles finally returned to the field, they won their first event which was the coin toss, and after winning it the Eagles Adonis Burgess made an emphatic statement to the referee of 'We want the ball' and soon proved why as the Eagles put together an impressive offensive performance. Kjay Proctor and Austin Bigford got the Chesnee offense off to a fast start as they rushed for a combined 39 yards on the first four plays and two plays later Proctor found Kaylob Blanton for an 18-yard scoring strike to give the Eagles an early 6-0 lead. Landrum's AJ Lindsey got the next score of the game as he intercepted a tipped pass before returning it 65 yards for a touchdown to give the Cardinals a 7-6 lead. Proctor got his second scoring touchdown strike of the game on the next drive as he found Kyle Martin on 76-yard touchdown pass as he out raced Cardinal defenders to make it 12-6 in favor of the Eagles with just under four minutes to go in the first quarter. After a stop by his defense Proctor kept his impressive night going as he ran it in from six yards out to make it 19-7 with just under a minute to go in the first quarter. On the ensuing play from scrimmage for the Cardinals, Chesnee's Aiden Allen picked off a Titus Poore screen pass for his first career interception. "We have been going over screens all week at practice," said Allen. "When they released, I back pedaled and read the QB's eyes, and he threw straight to me." After the Cardinals defense stopped the Eagles, they built off of that momentum as it only took Colton Link one play on the ensuing possession to put the Cardinals in the endzone as he ran it in from 80 yards out to make the Eagles lead 19-14 early in the second quarter. The Eagles needed just three plays to respond as Proctor found Blanton for the second time touchdown between the two in game, this time from 54 yards out to make it 26-14, a lead they would take into halftime. On their second possession of the second half, Chesnee's Proctor and Blanton connect once again for the third time in the game, this time for a 42-yard scoring strike to make it 33-14 with just over three minutes to go in the third quarter. With under a minute to go in the third quarter, Chesnee started a 12-play drive that chewed up 68 yards and nearly seven minutes off the clock. The final play of the drive saw Proctor pitch the ball to Kyle Martin on an A back sweep, out of a formation familiar to Eagles fans from last year, and Martin ran two yards into the endzone to make it 40-14 with just under six minutes to go. The Cardinals responded with the final score of the game as Ty Foster hit Titus Poore for a 10-yard scoring strike to make it 40-21 in favor of the Eagles with just over three minutes left, as that would be the end of their comeback effort despite recovering an onside kick minutes later. The Eagles offense rolled up 398 total yards of offense led by Kjay Proctor's 12 completions for 236 yards and four scores while he also added 51 yards and another score on the ground. "I think I played well but we have a lot to work on as a team," said Proctor. "We always have room for improvement." Chesnee's Kaylob Blanton had a monster game with 148 total yards with 119 yards and three scores coming through the air on four catches. Kyle Martin also had a big performance as he had 116 total yards including 101 yards receiving on five catches with one going for a 75-yard score and adding a two-yard rushing score. Austin Bigford finished the game with 63 yards rushing to lead the Eagles. The Chesnee defense limited the Cardinals to 226 yards of total offense, which comes a week after Link rushed for over 400 yards and six touchdowns as the Cardinals scored 74 points against Blue Ridge. "I thought our defense did an outstanding job," said Lewis. "I thought we came in with a good game plan. We knew we had to contain Link and for the most part we done a good job of that. Overall, I thought our coaches did a great job of game planning, and our kids did a great job executing tonight." Gunther Gerstenacker led the Eagles with seven and a half tackles while younger brother Quinton added five and a half tackles along with a sack. Bradley Myers had two sacks for the Eagles while Jarred Bishop had three pass breakups. Adonis Burgess and Hayden Webb also each had two pass breakups. Chesnee's Aiden Allen had three and a half tackles, a tackle for loss, and an interception. Landrum's Colton Link led the Cardinals with 99 yards rushing including a long 80-yard scoring run. Titus Poore led the Cardinals with 104 yards through the air on 11 completions as he also caught a 10-yard touchdown pass while running for 16 yards. Ty Foster completed three passes for the Cardinals including the touchdown pass to Poore. Roan Ghahreman led the Cardinals with 52 yards receiving on three catches and AJ Medvar added 48 yards receiving on four catches. The win improves the Eagles to 4-2 on the season and gives them the all-important 1-0 start to region play. The Eagles will travel to Abbeville on Friday as the Panthers are coming off a 40-3 win over Liberty this past Friday with kickoff set for 7:30 PM.
Bryan j Blanton
10/3/2023 12:51:42 pm
Way to go Eagles! I'm so proud of you guys. What an emotional heartfelt performance! #ChesneeStrong
Amanda Fowler
10/4/2023 06:37:36 am
Way to go eagles 🦅 eagle 🦅 strong Comments are closed.
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