Charleston runs all over the Red Devils

Chaffee's Leyton Hanback rolls out to his right to attempt a pass during the Sept. 6 game between the Red Devils and Charleston.

Photo Courtesy of Carrie Trovillion - Freelance Photographer

The Chaffee Red Devils football team fell to the Charleston Blue Jays 38-0 on Friday at Chaffee High School.

In a game with barely any passes thrown, whoever has the better night running the ball usually prevails. This was the case Friday night as the Blue Jays rushed up and down the field.

Charleston opened up the scoring with a 10-yard rush by Kanarrius Clark to take a 6-0 lead after a failed two-point conversion.

On the ensuing drive the Red Devils moved the football down the field before a fumble inside the 20-yard line gave the Blue Jays back the ball. Charleston took advantage with another rushing touchdown, this time by DeShaun Henderson from six yards out to take a 14-0 lead into halftime.

Chaffee head coach Jack Altermatt said he was happy with the way his team moved the ball but did not like the drives stalling out.

“We've got to be able to widen some things out because our inside game works pretty well but what ends up happening once you get down in that red zone, it's like you’ve got to find ways to get people separated and just find ways to score,” Altermatt said. “ We struggled with that last week too. So this is one of those things where it's early in the season and we need to start figuring some things out quickly.”

Chaffee began the second half with a successful onside kick and moved the ball down but again a fumble recovery by Charleston ended the drive. Charleston capitalized with a 60-yard touchdown pass from Chase Kearby to Bernard Betts to take a 22-0 lead.

The Blue Jays put up two more rushing touchdowns, one from Betts and the other by Trenez Lane to take home the 38-0 lead.

Altermatt said his team did well in minimizing the damage in the first half and played better than the previous game.

“In the first half we came out and played really hard, better than the entirety of the first game. After starting with that onside kick we thought we’ll take advantage and flip the momentum, our offense struggled and we weren’t able to do that,” Altermatt said. “Our defense was on the field way too long so we have to figure some things out. We have to get the ball into the receiver's hands and find a way to move the ball around a little bit.”

Chaffee, now 0-2 will travel to East Prairie next Friday to take on the Eagles who are 1-1.