Chandler scored twice in the . rst six minutes and never looked back Friday night en route to a 45-7 win over Prague.
The win evened the Lions' record at 1-1 going into their annual rivalry game with Stroud next week. The Red Devils will take an 0-2 record into their rivalry game at Meeker on Friday.
"It feels good coming ou a two-week rest to start ou fast," Chandler coach Jack Gray said. "We did well all around. We spread the ball around and mixed it up a lot. "The defense looked a thousand times better. We focused a lot on defense on getting back to the basics and how we react on defense. We lined up against Clinton, but didn't react. Tonight, we got to see our guys use their athleticism and speed and go react" Josiah Tillis started the scoring with a 34-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Clayton Ritchie with slightly more than two minutes gone in the game.
Tillis was back in the end zone on a 27-yard touchdown reception with 6:38 left in the . rst period.
"After Jordan Denson having the big week he did last week, he's going to draw a lot of attention from everybody, and rightfully so," Gray said. "We know people are going to overplay his way, so we . gured if we can get some motion and get some rotation, we could get Josiah open.
"Josiah is a very athletic guy and dangerous. We thought if they rotate over on Jordan, we have Josiah one-on-one and we can take a shot. The quarterback read it and went that way." Ritchie added a 10-yard touchdown run with 0:54 left in the . rst quarter. Combined with Levi Becktol's three extra-point kicks, that made it 21-0.
Prague put together a drive that went to the Chandler 20, where the Red Devils had a fourth down. Keano Henley packed it to the 10 for a . rst down, but the Red Devils faced another fourth down with 6:54 left in the period.
Prague tried a pass into the end zone on the right side, but Chandler's Karson Wilson batted the ball away and then caught it. He returned it out of the end zone, giving the Lions possession inside their own 10.
Ritchie hit Zaedyn Hankins with a pass that he carried to the Prague 22 and Darius Ward . nished the drive with a 4-yard scoring run.
Jordan Denson added the next touchdown with a highlight reel 66-yard touchdown reception. He broke free from a couple of tacklers and dragged another several yards before getting into the end zone, making the score 34-0 at the half.
Ritchie scored again in the third quarter on a 12-yard run and Peyton Arms scored on a three-yard run with 4:13 left in the game, making it 46-0.
Prague's Brayden Strickland closed out the scoring with a six-yard run for the Red Devils, making it 46-7 with 10:15 left in the game.
"Our ou ensive line did really well," Gray said. "We missed some holes here and there and made them look bad when they were really doing a good job." Ritchie completed seven of nine throws for 235 yards and three touchdowns. Four of the completions went to Denson, who had 115 yards and a score. Tillis caught two balls, both for touchdowns, and 61 yards.
Wade was the Lions' leading rusher, carrying 17 times for 146 yards and a touchdown. Ritchie had 38 yards and two touchdowns.
Gray had praise for his defense, which was gashed for 527 total yards by Clinton quarterback Easton Powell in the season opener.
"Our front seven in the box did a lot better, the D-line working with the linebackers and being in attack mode. "We have to be process driven, so we're going to take it step by step and get better. We need to do what we do better, cleaner and faster and keep taking steps so that when it comes playou time we're the best we can be." Roanon Wolford had 11 tackles, Arms had 6 and Landon Massie had . ve.
Next up for the Lions will be Stroud in the annual rivalry game, which kicks ou at 7 p.m. in Chandler.
Chandler's Josiah Tillis makes a move en route to his second touchdown of the game last week against Prague.
Photo/Brian Blansett