Football

Chester sends a message in dominating win over Eldred

By RICHARD A. ROSS

ELDRED, NY — In the opening salvo of this year’s Section 9 Class D war, Chester launched a barrage of offense against defending champ Eldred on September 16. With it, they sent a resounded call over the YellowJackets’ home field.

“You took our titles away and we want them back.”

Last year, Eldred wrested the Division V and Section IX titles from Chester. After Eldred won its first-ever divisional championship with a 19-14 victory over Chester, the Hambletonians were gracious in defeat.

But all the while, Chester fully expected to defeat Eldred in the season’s most important game, the Class D championship at Dietz Stadium. That 27-14 Eldred victory left a lingering bruise that could only be healed by redemption.

That redemption may not have been accomplished with the 36-6 thrashing delivered in this non-league win, but it was a warning signal that Eldred should prepare for a battle to the death this season.

Winning the toss and electing to defer, Chester squashed Eldred’s first trio of running plays for a quick three-and-out. Then Chester quarterback Joe Salthouse went airborne on the first play from scrimmage and hit Darren Mann on a 53-yard touchdown (TD) strike as the speedy receiver blew past safety Nick McCormick.

Eldred got lucky as the play was called back on a holding penalty. Unfortunately, the play was a preview of coming attractions.

Chester running back Mike Schmidlein carried the ball 26 times for 212 yards en route to a trio of TDs and a pair of two-point conversions. The success took place despite a week of preparation by the Yellow Jackets to meet him head on. Schmidlein torched teams in the two prior weeks to the tune of 586 yards.

But what unraveled Eldred was Chester’s passing attack that saw Salthouse complete four-of-five first- half passes for 96 yards, which included a 28-yard TD pass to Darren Mann at 5:21 of the first quarter and a 36-yard strike to Mann for another TD at 10:39 of the second quarter. Last week, Webutuck’s first-half pressure kept Salthouse out of synch until much later in the game. They held Chester scoreless in the first half.

After Salthouse delivered his pair of strikes and Schmidlein punctuated them with his two-point conversions, Chester mounted a third assault as the second quarter wound down from their own 42. Mixing in runs by Schmidlein and a pass to Mann, Salthouse got the Hambletonians to the two-yard line and Schmidlein burst through for the TD. Salthouse got the two-point conversion on a keeper.

Eldred’s running attack experienced a modicum of success between the 20s, with some nice carries by Kevin Prunka, Tom Compasso, Hilton Johnson and McCormick. But Chester held the Yellow Jackets out of the end zone, with the exception of a 25-yard TD pass from McCormick to wide receiver Kojo Williams with 2:35 left in the half. Chester stopped running back Prunka on the two-point conversion run.

Chester’s defense spoiled the Yellow Jackets’ attempt to put a second TD up on the board before halftime. After Eldred took over on downs at the Chester 39 and was moving the ball well, Chester’s defense stiffened and thwarted Prunka’s forward progress five yards short of the goal line on a screen pass and took a 24-6 lead into halftime.

Chester received to start the second half and took over at their own 29. After Schmidlein advanced the ball three yards, he exploded up the left sideline for a 68-yard run to give Chester a 30-6 lead. The two-point conversion failed.

Eldred got good field position on a short kick at their own 47, but the drive stalled at the Chester five-yard line on a fourth-down run that came up short.

Mann had a humongous return on a subsequent punt that was shortened by a block-in-the-back penalty that had Chester coach Ron Stover steaming.

He needn’t have worried. Chester started at its own 40, but runs by Schmidlein of four, five and then a 51-yard touchdown scamper up the left sideline put Chester up 36-0 to secure the victory.

After the win, Stover said he had the most respect for coach Frank Kean, Eldred and player McCormick, in particular, whom Stover referred to as “the hub of this team.” He said that his team had worked on the passing game all week, knowing that it was unrealistic to expect Schmidlein to carry the ball on nearly every down.

Chester showed its diversity but until a team finds a way to stop Schmidlein, the vaunted running back holds the key to Chester’s success.

Kean gave Chester a lot of credit. “They beat us on the line of scrimmage and hurt us with those two big passing plays,” he said. “We came out as flat as a drum.”

Kean and fellow coach John LiGreci know it won’t be easy to defend their titles against such a hungry foe.

Visit riverreportersports.com for an album of game photos.