Yellow Jackets take down Sparta at home
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Chester Yellow Jackets varsity football team hosted Sparta this past Friday. The Jackets dominated the Bulldogs and came away with their second victory for the season 46-26.
"We want to be a playoff team," said Chester coach Bryan Lee. "Tonight we were just on the verge of being that team. We have to work some things out in the coming weeks."
The Yellow Jackets came out pumped and ready to go for their cross county rival match. The Chester crowd had their forks ready. The forks were a memento left by an unknown group who covered W.O. Smith field the night before. Chester drew first blood early in the first quarter when QB David Winters connected with a wide open Jordan Jones for a 16 yard touchdown. Alex Lankford would add the extra point. Jacket's defense would keep the Bulldogs bite to a bark by shutting down their ground attack and keeping the pressure on the quarterback. Sparta's Dillion Blind would give the Bulldogs a chance late in the quarter with an interception, but Chester's defense would prove to be a tough hurdle.
Sparta would have a series of dropped passes for a quick 3 and out in the second. Chester's Stephen Wallace would get his first touchdown on the season with a 6 yard run at 8:14 left to play. Lankford would add the extra point by putting it through the uprights giving a 14-0 lead. Sparta's Preston Nance would finally add points for the bulldogs with an impressive 80 yard run. An unsuccessful two-point conversion would leave the Bulldogs down by eight. Jackets' offensive helped eat up the clock with short runs from Wallace and Matt Roth. Winters would connect with Roth for a 17 yard touchdown.
Sparta would help close the gap when QB Blake Sheldon connected with Jake Hargis for the 11 yard touchdown. Sheldon would connect again with Hargis for the two point conversion bringing the score within seven. On the next possession, Chester's Jordan Jones would break tackles and find his way to the one yard line before being taken down. Wallace would drive it in at 39.4 seconds left to play. Lankford would go 3 for 3 to help keep Chester in the lead 28-14 going into half time.
"We let them get too many passes early in the game," says Chester linebacker Kenny White. "Coach told us at half time to go man to man. We did, and shut down their run game.
Wallace would score untouched on a four yard run with 6:08 left in the third. The two-point conversion failed bringing the score 34-14 in favor of the Jackets. Sparta's Shelton and Hargis would connect once again on a 29 yard pass with under two minutes left to play in the third. The conversion failed and Chester still led with 34-20. Chester's defense kept the pressure on the QB, forcing quick throws to the flats for Sparta.
On Chester's first possession of the final quarter, Winters would run for a 62 yard touchdown on a quarterback keeper. Sparta would block the extra point doubling the lead 40-20. Chester would quickly get the ball back on a Winter's interception setting up a one yard touchdown by Tim Sullins. Sparta would once again block Lankford's extra point attempt bring the score to 46-20. Chester's defense would step it up even more with hard tackles by Chase Hecht, Wallace, Winters, Roth and the rest of the Jacket Swarm. Sebastian Throop would cut his way through the Bulldog defense for a sack. Sparta would get the last touchdown late in the fourth from a 2 yard Nance run. They would fail on their two point conversion.
"I am pleased with tonight's win, said Lee. "I thought we had some breakdowns in our secondary that we can't afford to have in the coming weeks. Our offense looked great tonight and we were able to get the ball to a lot of kids."
Chester was lead in rushing yards by Stephen Wallace with 20 carries for 93 yards, Matt Roth had 9 carries for 55 yards, Jordan Jones with 2 carries for 23 yards, Tim Sullins with 2 carries for 8 yards, and David Winters had 2 carries for 65 yards. Receiving was led by Lankford who had 1 reception for 12 yard , Roth 2-34, Daniel Adams 1-8, Jordan Jones 1-16 and Carlo Marconi 1-12. Defense was led by Roth with 5 solos and 3 assists, Sullins had 2/1, Wallace with 3/2, Lankford 1/0, Richard McLeans with 3/2, Shane Lawrence 3/0, Zach Slavens 1/0, Winters 1/1, Jayson Stevens 5/4, Carlo Marconi 0/1, Jones 2/0, Throop 2/1, Justin Woodward 1/0, Ryan Wofford 0/2 and Chase Hecht 0/1.
"The kids played harder and improved over the week," said Sparta coach Seth English. "We have been trying to twice our defense week-end and week-out. We just have to keep improving and keep our heads high."
Rushing for Sparta was led by Preston Nance who had 7 carries for 96 yards, Clay Peck 1-4, and Dartanus White 1-6. receiving was led by Clay Peck who had 9 receptions for 114 yards, Jake Hargis 8-100, Preston Nance 3-68, Ryan Nehrt 1-15, Dartanus White 1-6 and Cody Klein 1-14.
Chester is now 2-3 overall and 1-1 in conference. Sparta dropped to 0-5 on the season.