Chandler’s Lions made the most of their return to Joe Telford Field, scoring early and often to blow out the Mount St.
Mary Rockets, 39-7, Friday.
It was the first home game of the season – and the first win – following two road losses and an open date.
“It’s good to win, especially coming back home for the home opener,” said coach Jack Gray. “We got a good big win 39-7,m in front of the home crowd.
“We put some things together right before district play, so we’re feeling pretty good, but we have a lot of things to fix, too.”
Chandler got on the scoreboard when quarterback Kaden Jones ran an option to the left and took it into the corner of the end zone with 4:54 left in the first quarter.
Spencer Clagg added a four-yard run early in the second quarter and Darian Mahan intercepted a pass and took it 20 yards to house, making the score 20-0 midway through the second period.
Although the Rockets added their only touchdown on a 29-yard reception by Salvador Jackson just before intermission, the Lions had clearly established their dominance.
The second half was largely more of the Lions imposing their will in the running game.
Freshman Casmen Hill had two short runs for scores in third quarter to make it 33-7 and Dylan McKinney closed out the scoring with another short run in the fourth.
The Lions managed only one score in their Zero Week loss to Stroud and two in a one-point loss to Luther, but Gray said they have been working on some fixes to problems that bothered them in those two games.
“We went back to basics,” he said. “We realized we were a little farther behind in some things we wanted to do.
“So, we took it back a notch and went back to basics. Easy stuff like down blocks, kick-out blocks, the technique that goes along with it.
Just knowing how to run a route.
“I think we have mended some bad areas in our game and put some stuff together. The culture is getting better. It still has to get better, but I felt a lot better than I did than Week 1.
“The culture thing is our biggest thing. We have to get a winning culture, we have to be able to face adversity, do things right when it counts. We’ll get better and we’ll keep on working on basics.”
Hill finished the game with 161 yards on 25 carries to lead Chandler’s rushing game, which finished with 259 yards on 41 tries.
Dylan McKinney added 55 yards on six carries.
Caedon Parris had 10 yards on one carry, Jones had 11 on four, Javon Frazier ran once for three yards; Gaige Hollen had 16 yards on three tries and Spencer Clagg ran once for three yards.
Chandler didn’t throw a lot, and didn’t need to, with the run game controlling the ball.
Jones tried 10 passes, completing three for 28 yards.
Taylor Clagg had 11 tackles, leading the team, and Spencer added six.
Chance Sullivan and Frazier had five stops.
“We went back to basics”
- head coach Jack Gray