Chesnee, SC- For the second week in a row the Chesnee Eagles used a late fourth quarter scoring drive followed by a huge defensive stand to seal a win, this time as they downed the Ninety-Six Wildcats 27-26 on senior night at the Eagle's Nest.
"It feels so good to pick up this win," said Chesnee lineman Etorian Valentine. "This is the best feeling to pick up the win on senior night." After both teams traded three and outs, the first big break of the night went the Eagles way as a bad snap on a punt attempt resulted in the Eagles getting the ball at the Ninety-Six twenty-three-yard line. The Eagle offense needed just four plays to cash it in, as Nick Hofer ran it in from three yards out and put Chesnee up 7-0 with just over seven minutes to go in the first quarter. Ninety-Six regained momentum thanks to a big play to start the ensuing drive as Braden Mitchell found Briant Witherspoon for a 64-yard pass to set the Wildcats up deep in Eagle territory. Mitchell ended the drive on a four-yard touchdown run to tie the game at seven with just under five minutes to go in the first quarter. After the teams traded a couple of three and outs, Ninety-Six had a huge momentum swing in the middle of the second quarter as they used a twelve-play drive that ended in a Mitchell two yard run to make it 14-7 in favor of the Wildcats. The Wildcats forced a fumble on the ensuing kickoff to set themselves up at the Eagles thirty-two-yard line and three plays later Mitchell found Briant Witherspoon for a fourteen-yard scoring strike to make it 20-7 with just under six minutes to go until halftime. The Eagles needed a spark and Noah Lawter provided just that on the ensuing kickoff as he took the kickoff seventy-three yards to paydirt to trim the Wildcat lead to 20-14 with 5:40 to go in the half. A few drives later the Eagles caught another break on a bad snap to set them up at the wildcat twelve-yard line and three plays later Austin Bigford cashed it in from four yards out to give Chesnee a 21-20 lead with just over a minute to go in the half. Dreydan Daniel ran the ball twenty-three yards to give the Wildcats some momentum to start the second half and followed it up later in the drive with a twenty-one-yard run. Braden Mitchell cashed it in from thirteen yards out to put the Wildcats up 26-21 with just under nine minutes to go in the third quarter. Chesnee came up with two big plays defensively in the fourth quarter and the first was a fumble recovery by Cade Spake deep in Eagle territory that set the Eagles up with a first and ten at their own eight-yard line. The drive saw sophomore quarterback KJ Proctor engineer his second career game winning drive. The first big play of the drive was an eleven-yard pass from Proctor to Jayden Williams followed by another big play on the drive, a fifteen-yard run by Hayden Webb. On the drive Austin Bigford picked up a key third down, and key fourth down conversion, but the biggest play of the drive was Bigford's eighteen-yard touchdown run to give them a 27-26 lead with eighty-two ticks left in the game. "Run hard, everyone on this team has that dog mentality," said Hayden Webb when asked what mentality he and the other running backs took into the last drive. The Wildcats managed to get into field goal range with two seconds left but the kick was no good securing the victory for the Eagles. "It's a great feeling knowing our defense has our backs especially in crunch time," said KJ Proctor when asked about his team's defense the last two weeks. "Those guys are always going out there to make the big play and have our back." With the win, the Eagles secured a playoff berth and will have a chance to secure the third seed in region I-AA with a win next week at Liberty. "It's great to clinch a playoff berth but that doesn't matter right now," said Chesnee head coach Clay Lewis. "I'm so proud of these kids because they work hard every day and have battled adversity, it's just great to see them come out with a hard-fought win." The win also sends the senior class out with a win in their final regular season home game which Lewis said he was happy about for his seniors. "Words can't how happy I am for them," said Lewis. "We talked about getting this win for them before the game and I told the younger guys let's send them out with a win." The Eagles had four rushers with over thirty yards with KJ Proctor leading the way with forty-three yards as Austin Bigford, Kyle Martin, and Hayden Webb joined Proctor with over thirty yards. Chesnee's Noah Lawter ended the game with 76 total yards for the Eagles. The Eagles ended the game with four players having over six tackles with Jayden Williams leading the way with eight tackles. Austin Bigford had seven and a half tackles while Gunther Gerstenacker had seven and Davion Stradford had six tackles of his own. Brenton Suddeth also collected a sack for the Eagles. Braden Mitchell completed thirteen passes for 147 yards and a score while also adding 60 yards rushing and three scores. Briant Witherspoon led all rushers with 79 yards rushing and all receivers with 64 yards receiving. The Eagles will hit the road next week as they take on the Liberty Red Devils for their final regular season game of the year. Comments are closed.
|
Our Sponsors
. If you would like to join us as a sponsor please contact us at: [email protected]
Archives
October 2023
Categories |