The Chesnee football team fell on the road to Woodruff 41-28 in the season opening matchup of the 2021 season between the two rival schools.
"We did some good things and the kids played hard,” said Chesnee head coach Clay Lewis. “I think we just got worn down in the second half and ran out of gas. We did some good things though and have a lot of things we can improve on.” On a night that just didn’t seem to go the Eagles way Chesnee returned the opening kickoff past midfield only to see the ball fumbled with the Wolverines recovering the ball. Chesnee’s defense was able to quickly force a three and out after the turnover though. Jalen Rudisil's first series as starting quarterback at the varsity level ended in his first career varsity touchdown pass on his first attempt of the game. On the fourth play of the drive Rudisil found a streaking KJ Valentine on a pass about forty yards through the air along with evading would be tacklers to go the final twenty yards to complete the sixty yard touchdown reception. Ezequiel Lazarin came on for the extra point, his first varsity kick, which went right through the uprights to give Chesnee a 7-0 lead. Firsts were a theme of the night for the Eagles, as a majority of the Chesnee team saw either their first varsity snaps or their first significant varsity snaps, as on offense alone the Eagles featured eight first time starters. Woodruff quickly responded on the ensuing drive as Carson Tucker found Mathias Dial for a forty-two yard scoring drive to tie the game at 7-7. On the next Wolverine possession they once again found success through the air as Carson Tucker found Nehemiah Cochran for the thirty-two yard scoring strike with less than a minute to go to give Woodruff the 14-7 lead. On the next Woodruff possession Tucker again connected with Dial, this time from thirty-seven yards out to double the Woodruff lead. The Eagles responded with a drive that started with Dylan Bennett barreling over a pair of Wolverine defenders on a thirteen yard run and was followed by a Rudisil fifty-nine yard run to set the Eagles up deep in Woodruff territory. Jayden Gossett capped the drive off with a one yard run for his first varsity touchdown on his first career carry, as the score cut the Woodruff lead in half midway through the second quarter. Woodruff once again pulled out to a fourteen point lead when Damarian Elmore ran it in from twenty-three yards out with 6:40 left in the half for a 28-14 lead. Chesnee responded with a ten play drive that saw them keep the ball on the ground for the first seven plays and score on a seven yard pass from Rudisil to Valentine to make it 28-21 with just over two minutes left in the half. Valentine recorded his first career multi-touchdown reception game at the varsity level. The Wolverines threatened on the ensuing possession driving inside the Chesnee five yard line thanks in part to a thirty-nine yard reception by thirty-nine yard reception by Mathias Dial. The Eagle defense proved to be up to the task as two players later forced a fumble inside the three yard line and Dylan Bennett secured the ball for the Eagles to end the threat. The second half saw the Wolverines get back in the scoring column once again as Tucker dialed up Dial once again this time from twenty-two yards out. The Eagles strung together a nice drive in response that saw Rudisil run for twenty-two yards deep into Wolverines territory but a block in the back penalty negated some of the yardage. The next play resulted in more bad luck as Isaiah Sullivan fought off his blocker and picked off a screen pass at the line of scrimmage for the Eagles second turnover of the night. Damarian Elmore capped the ensuing drive with a two yard scoring run to put the Wolverines up by twenty. After a great return by KJ Valentine set the Eagles up on the Wolverines side of the fifty, the Eagles used ten plays to once again see Rudisil lead a scoring drive. This time he ran it in from four yards out for his first career varsity touchdown run to make it 41-28 with just over four minutes left. Rudisil not only picked up his first career passing and rushing touchdowns but also his first one hundred yard rushing performance as he finished with one hundred and seventeen yards and a score. He also completed three passes for seventy eight yards and two scores KJ Valentine had two receptions for sixty-seven yards and two scores while also having a excellent night at punter as he averaged over forty yards on his first two career punts. He also had two kickoff returns for a hundred and thirteen yards. The Eagles got a big night defensively from two young sophomores as Austin Bigford finished with ten tackles and Dylan Jolley added seven tackles while senior Landon Thompson added six and a half tackles. Chesnee had a solid night in the kicking game that saw them use three different players seeing action at punter or kicker for the first time in their varsity careers. Along with Valentine's punting, the Eagles saw Ezequiel Lazarin go three for three on PATs and Tyquan Dawkins also went one for one on PATs while also handling kickoff duties for the Eagles. Woodruff got a solid game from Carson Tucker as he completed thirteen passes for two hundred and fifteen yards with four scores. His favorite target of the night was Mathias Dial who caught seven balls for one hundred and forty-four yards with three scores. Damarian Elmore led the Wolverines with sixteen carries for one hundred and forty-two yards along with two scores. Jailen Gribble also passed one hundred yards as he finished with one hundred and six yards on thirteen carries. The Eagles will look to bounce back as they travel to Broome next Friday night with a 7:30pm scheduled kickoff in another matchup of Spartanburg County rivals. Comments are closed.
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