Chesnee overcame a thirteen point deficit on senior night to come away with a 23-20 region victory over Landrum after kicker Ezequiel Lazarin hit a field goal as time expired for the Eagles.
"It took us a while but we finally figured things out offensively," said Chesnee head coach Clay Lewis. "I think conditioning played a factor as I think we started to wear them down. When it came crunch time our seniors stepped up as they weren't going to be denied." The victory was a big one for the Eagles as the win keeps them mathematically alive for the region championship and allows them to possibly secure a home playoff game with a win next week on the road against Blacksburg. The game started as a defensive slugfest with both teams featuring primarily rushing attacks. Landrum finally broke the seal on the scoring when Jesse Bowers ran it in from twelve yards out for his first of two rushing touchdowns of the night to give the Cardinals a 7-0 lead with just over seven minutes left in the first half. Chesnee responded with a touchdown of their own as a pair of Cardinal pass interference penalties along with a pair of nice runs by Jayden Gossett and Adonis Burgess set up a Landon Thompson one yard quarterback sneak to tie the game at 7-7 with 3:36 in the half. After a big seventy-six yard kick return by Colton Link on the ensuing kickoff, the Cardinals regained the lead two plays later when Grayson Foster ran it in to make the score 13-7 in favor of Landrum with 2:37 left in the first half. The Cardinals had a strong drive to open the third quarter but came up empty as they missed a field goal that later proved to be a pivotal moment in the game. Jesse Bowers on the ensuing drive ran it in from fifty-two yards out to extend the Cardinals lead to 20-7 with six seconds left in the quarter as the momentum seemed to be on the side of Landrum heading into the final quarter. Chesnee kept it on the ground on the ensuing drive as seniors Jayden Gossett and Dylan Bennett led the way with thirty-four yards rushing as the final play of the drive saw Landon Thompson find Davion Stradford in the back corner of the endzone as Stradford make a beautiful toe touch catch from ten yards out to make it 20-14 in favor of Landrum with just under ten minutes to play. The Eagle defense forced a three and out on the ensuing drive that was aided by a third down false start penalty but did allow the Cardinals to run over two minutes of time off the clock. After Thompson and Gossett combined to pick up eighteen yards on the first three plays of the ensuing drive, a reverse that saw the ball end up in the hands of Davion Stradford put the Eagles in a first and goal situation at the five yard line after a thirty-five yard run. Landon Thompson followed up the reverse with a score when he plunged it in on a quarterback sneak to tie the game with just over four and a half minutes to play at 20-20. The Cardinals had the ball at their own twenty-five with a chance to seal the win and that's when one of the most surprising heroes came up with his biggest plays of the night for the Eagles. After two strong runs by Bowers gave Landrum a first down the Cardinals decided to go back to the well one more time but this time the Eagles were able to force a fumble. The fumble was recovered by sophomore linebacker Gunter Gerstenacker as he was the only Eagle on the bottom of the pile. Dylan Bennett started the Chesnee offensive possession after the turnover with a strong three yard run that saw him power through some tough tackle attempts and kind of set the tone for the Eagles drive. "I told coach I wanted the ball and that I wanted to help lead us to victory," said Bennett. "That is where we are right now." Another senior stepped up in the drive as KJ Valentine came up with an eleven yard reception to keep the Eagles going which was followed by big runs from Adonis Burgess, Jayden Gossett, and Dylan Bennett that moved the ball down to the seven yard line of the Cardinals. With three seconds left on the clock the Eagles took a timeout to set up a potential game winning kick. For the second time in as many homes, kicker Ezequiel Lazarin, nailed a no doubter from twenty-four yards out to give the Eagles the win as him teammates erupted into utter jubilation as they ran on to the field to celebrate. "He came in there and did an awesome job," said Lewis about the field goal. "He is the iceman as nothing seems to effect him. We also did a great job on the line including our holder and our long snapper." Both teams had strong rushing totals, but got there with two different routes. Landrum had two hundred and nine yards on the ground along with three scores as one hundred and eighty-four and two scores of that came from Jesse Bowers. The Eagles combined to rush for one hundred and ninety-seven yards as Jayden Gossett led the way with sixty-two yards with Dylan Bennett and Adonis Burgess right behind him with forty-seven and forty-five yards respectively. One key to the Eagles rushing total was the offensive line, especially in the fourth quarter, when they were able to help the Eagles start to find big chunk plays on the ground. "We had the determination to do what we needed to do to win the game," said Chesnee offensive lineman Caleb Rentz. "We wanted to give our skill players the opportunity to win us the game." Landon Thompson finished the game with three total touchdowns as he ran in two and picked up a third through the air. Davion Stradford had three catches for twenty-two yards and a touchdown catch to lead the Eagles in receiving. Dylan Bennett added a strong defensive performance to his hard nosed running as he finished the game with a team high seven and a half tackles and a tackle for loss. Austin Bigford and Tyquan Dawkins finished with five tackles each while Bigford added a sack to his total. The Eagles will be back on the road next week when they travel over to Cherokee County to take on the Blacksburg Wildcats in another matchup with major playoff seeding implications as the kickoff is set for 7:30 PM. Comments are closed.
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