Chandler scored early and late Friday night, made some key defensive adjustments and beat Class 3A Lone Grove, 20-17.
It evened Chandler’s record at 1-1 and sets up a road trip to Class 4A Clinton this week.
The Lions got the winning score Friday with a third-down swing pass from Cruz Jackson to Grant McGinnis on a third-and-eight play with 2:44 left in the game.
Except for a fourthpass to Javarious Wade, the Lions had run the ball on what proved to be their winning drive, but coach Jack Gray opted for the short pass on the third-down play from the seven.
“It was just a call I had in my head that I liked, the way they were adjusting,” Gray said. “We were keeping them guessing which way we were going, using double tight ends.
“They started squeezing down tighter and tighter, so the screen felt good.”
Leading 20-17 after the score, the Lions pressured Lone Grove on the next possession and pushed the Longhorns into a desperate fourth-and-29 play.
Lone Grove had come up with clutch plays all night, but this time the Lions stifled the Longhorns, forcing an incomplete pass and taking over possession with 1:19 left in the game to seal the win.
“We put London Ward, freshman running back, at nose guard, and he ended up being the cause of two sacks in the fourth quarter,” Gray said. “He didn’t expect to play nose guard tonight - he’d never played it in his life - but we said ‘let’s get someone with speed and let them chase the quarterback and get a three-man rush out of it.’
“We also put Cruz in as the Mike linebacker and brought him on some blitzes. We started getting pressure and got some sacks there at the end.”
Rewinding to the first snap, Chandler took a 7-0 lead out of the gate when Ty Garver took a handoff and ran 54 yards for a touchdown.
In between that run and McGinnis’s final score were four quarters of entertaining and exciting football as the Lions got back on track after dropping their season opener to Stroud last week.
Gray said he was pleased with the way the Lions responded in the second half against the Longhorns.
“First half, it felt like we were doing same things we were against Stroud,” he said. “We spent most of the first half on defense and only ran about a dozen plays, so it felt very Stroud like.
“Self-inflicted wounds, a fumble here and a fumble there put us in third-and-long. Watching the playbacks, we were doing a good job blocking up front, but just not taking care of the ball. Fumbled snaps, fumbles, those things.
“The second half we came out and found the holes, but we still have to get a lot better.
Lone Grove tied the game at 7-7 when quarterback Tatum Quinn hit Elliott Whittington for a scoring pass midway through the first quarter, then took a 10-7 lead when Logan Glover booted a field goal just before the period ended.
Chandler retook the lead at 14-10 when Mc-Ginnis ran for a 7-yard score with 8:28 left in the third.
The Longhorns took a 17-14 lead late in the third quarter when Quinn scrambled for what seemed like an eternity before hitting Jaykob Ellis for a 13yard scoring pass on fourth down.
Chandler and Lone Grove wound up with similar total yards - 281 for the Longhorns to 276 for the Lions - but they racked them up in different ways.
Chandler ran for 223 yards to 56 for the Longhorns, while Lone Grove threw for 225 yards compared to 53 for the Lions.
Chandler lost one fumble, but picked up two of Lone Grove’s and intercepted a pass.
One of the fumble recoveries was a highlight reel play by sophomore Chase Buchanan, who stripped the ball from a Lone Grove runner and returned it to the Lone Grove 24 late in the second quarter.
Chandler heads to Clinton on Friday for its last non-district game with the 4A Red Tornadoes.
One of the state’ legendary programs, Clinton is 2-0 on the season following an overtime win over Kingfisher last week.