The Chesnee Eagles used an offensive outburst in the first half and a stone wall defense in the second half to come away with a 35-21 win over the Blacksburg Wildcats.
"Our kids are working hard and starting to believe in what we are doing and in each other,” said Chesnee head coach Clay Lewis. ”It was an overall team effort tonight." The win stops Blacksburg's three game winning streak in the rivalry and gives Chesnee it's first win in Blacksburg since 2014. Chesnee received the opening kickoff and drove down the field converting on their first two third down attempts of the game before Blacksburg was able to force the Eagles into a fourth down play at the Blacksburg thirty-eight yard line. On the ensuing play Chesnee quarterback Jacob Kimbrell was able to find a wide open Alijah Means for a thirty-eight yard scoring strike giving the Eagles a 7-0 lead. Blacksburg would respond quickly as quarterback Zach Painter ran the ball sixty-four yards down the Blacksburg sideline to the Chesnee one yard line on the first play from scrimmage for the Wildcats. Chesnee would once again go on a long drive in response with this drive lasting nearly five minutes in length. The drive was keyed by a forty-six yard pass from Jacob Kimbrell to Jacob Aparis that helped set up a Kimbrell four yard touchdown run. Another big play through the air doubled the Eagles lead to fourteen and set off a scoring explosion when Jacob Kimbrell connected with Rodney Alexander out in the flat allowing Alexander to make a few Blacksburg defenders miss and race into the endzone from thirty-seven yards out. On the ensuing Blacksburg drive Chesnee defensive back Lorenzo Duren picked off a Blacksburg pass and then weaved his way down the field for a sixty-four yard pick six to put Chesnee up 28-7 midway through the second quarter. Blacksburg would respond with a five yard Ty Wilson touchdown run to cut Chesnee's lead at 28-14 with just under three minutes remaining in the half. With just under forty-five seconds to go until halftime Chesnee quarterback Jacob Kimbrell would get his fourth touchdown of the night this time from a yard out to put Chesnee up 35-14. The key play on the drive was a thirty-three yard Nyquille Ofair interception return to the Blacksburg one yard line to set up Kimbrell's one yard plung. Early in the third quarter the Chesnee offense made their first mistake of the night when Christian Nix picked off a Chesnee pass and returned it deep in to Eagle territory. The Chesnee defense would recover a Blacksburg fumble inside of the Eagle's one yard line. For most of the game the Eagles defense did a solid job limiting Blacksburg star Marcus Dewberry but Dewberry was able to find the endzone early in the fourth quarter as he caught a short pass and ran it in from five yards out with nine minutes left in the game to cut Chesnee's lead to 35-21. The Wildcats attempted a quick onside kick on the ensuing kickoff but Cole Hoskyns made a clean recover for the Eagles. During the second half of the fourth quarter the Chesnee offense turned to B-back Camden Burns as Burns had twenty-five yards on five carries over the Eagles final two drives and three of those runs resulted in first downs. Jacob Kimbrell had a big game over all as the senior signal caller finished four of ten overall through the air with 143 yards and two scores. He also added forty-eight yards and two more scores on the ground. Rodney Alexander also had as he finished with ninety-four total yards and a receiving score. Cole Hoskyns came up big for the Eagles along the defensive line for the Eagles as he had two tackles for loss and a pair of sacks to go along with a big blocked punt. One key difference in the game besides the impact of turnovers was the third down conversion rates. Chesnee was successful on seven of their thirteen attempts while Blacksburg failed on all nine attempts. "That's what we always talk about. Third down is the money down. You have to get off the field on third down. We have to get off the field on third down, and did an outstanding job of that tonight.". Coach Lewis said about his team's stellar defensive play on third down. Chesnee will look to pick up their first region win next week when they travel to Southside for the region opener for both teams. Comments are closed.
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