Hill’s 349 yards rushing lifts Lions over Bethel
It was a season’s worth of highlight reel plays for Casmen Hill Friday night.
The Chandler senior running back peeled off touchdown runs of 54, 82, 61 and 66 yards against Bethel and finished with an astounding 349 yards on just 16 carries.
That keyed the Lions’ offense, which racked up 570 yards of total offense. The Chandler defense shut out Bethel in the second half, and the Lions moved to 5-1 on the season with a 48-15 win.
They are back at home Thursday to take on Crossings Christian, which is 4-2 for the season, but 1-2 in district after losing to Luther and Jones.
Most of Hills long runs came from him following blocks to get 10 yards past the line of scrimmage and then out-running the Bethel defenders to the end zone, but he flexed heavily on one second-quarter run that eliminated most of the suspense from the final outcome.
That came with 3:31 left in the second quarter and the Lions leading 20-15.
Hill took the handoff and cut across the right side. Two defenders came up to meet him, but Hill flattened them both and took off on an 82-yard run for a score.
That was the beginning of a run of 36 unanswered points and put Chandler in control of the game.
“They were filling up the box, cover zero, no safeties,” said Chandler coach Jack Gray. “If you can get past that first level, then it’s gone.
“That’s what we were looking for all night, hooking up to get those first-level blocks and get him out in the open.”
Gray wasn’t pleased with the way the Lions played prior to that point, but said he liked the way they played after intermission.
“The first half, we did not play like we wanted to” he said. “That’s happened a couple of times this year.
“We came out in the first half, and they put up a good fight and were more physical than us. Physicality, that’s something we feel like we can control, and we didn’t.”
Chandler scored first, getting a 37-yard touchdown pass from Alec Jackson to Braden Nation with 4:32 left in the first quarter.
The point-after kicked was blocked, however, and Bethel came back to take a 7-6 lead when quarterback Bryce Tarpley scrambled for a seven-yard touchdown.
Hill made it 12-7 with a 54-yarder early in the second period, but Bethel went up 15-12 when John Allred broke out of a scrum and ran 42 yards for a score on a fourth-and-one play.
A couple of minutes later, Jackson hit Stefaun Mackey with a 39-yard scoring pass to put Chandler back in front for good.
Hill added his punishing touchdown run on the next possession.
“After the first half, I was pleased with the way we played,” Gray said. “There were a lot of mental mistakes in the first half and losing the physicality battle.
“They were being more physical and brought the hammer to us a couple of times. The second half we turned it around and started being the hammer instead of the nail.”
Next up are the Crossings Christian Knights, who started off 3-0 before losing to Jones and Luther. They polished off winless Star-Spencer 32-0 last week.
“Their coach is a really good defensive coach.” They’re going to be coached well, and that’s always scary.”
A year ago, the Lions put together scoring drives on their final two possessions to get an 18-16 victory over Crossings.
The final touchdown was set up by a pass interference call in the end zone on the defender covering Drake Rodriguez. Kaden Jones followed it with a touchdown on third-and-goal with 1:12 to play.