Hornets suffer first loss of season at Benjamin Russell

ALEXANDER CITY – Chelsea rallied to take a 21-20 lead in the second half, but miscues helped Benjamin Russell string together three straight scores and a 40-29 win in the Wildcats’ home opener and Hornets’ first road test Friday.

“Defensively, I thought our defense we played pretty well. We gave up a couple of big plays,” Chelsea head coach Chris Elmore said. “We’re sitting there with five minutes to go in the game and they’d only scored two touchdowns. It was anybody’s game. We just didn’t take advantage of our chances on offense.”

The Hornets received the opening kickoff of the game and marched down field to take a 7-0 lead on a short run by Zalon Reynolds and a Tyler Thomas point-after kick.

Benjamin Russell's NeColby Maxwell responded with his first of three rushing touchdowns in the game to tie it, 7-7. It then became 14-7 before the end of the first quarter on a scrambling, roll-out, 37-yard touchdown pass from Timmy Lawson to Tyler Watts.

Both teams were silent offensively in the second quarter and traded interceptions by Chelsea’s Reid Burleson and Benjamin Russell's Darius Jackson. Benjamin Russell carried its 14-7 lead into halftime.

Maxwell struck again to open the second half, returning Chelsea’s kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown and 20-7 edge.

Chelsea responded to pull within a touchdown, 20-14, on a TD pass to Will Rowser from Matthew Marquet.

In the fourth quarter, the Hornets recovered a fumble at the Benjamin Russell 25. Reynolds followed with his second touchdown run to give Chelsea a 21-20 lead. He finished the night with 167 yards rushing on 21 carries.

However, Maxwell gave the Wildcats a 26-21 lead late in the fourth quarter with a 10-yard touchdown run. From there, the Wildcats' pass defense turned up its game.

Two late interceptions helped seal the win for Benjamin Russell. Timmy Lawson returned a pick-six to make it 33-21 with 4:20 to play, followed by another Wildcat interception at the Chelsea 8 and Maxwell punched in his third touchdown run and fourth score of the night to make it 40-21.

Maxwell finished the game with more than 300 all-purpose yards, including 221 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 32 carries to lead the Wildcats’ offense.

“He’s a phenomenal player. He was a big reason why they were a semifinal team last season. I thought he might get tired but he didn’t, and he was a big key to that last drive,” Elmore said.

Chelsea got on the board with 1:20 to play on a Marquet pass to Jay Vickers. Josh Gregg converted a 2-point play to pull the Hornets within two scores, 40-29. Marquet finished the night with 157 yards on 18-of-32 passing and 51 yards rushing.

Chelsea’s onside kick attempt was recovered by Benjamin Russell at midfield to help seal the game.

Chelsea (3-1, 1-1 Region 3) will remain on the road next week, traveling to Pelham.

“I think the bottom line is it’s one game. It’s a road region game. Yes, we wanted to win it, but this doesn’t define our season. We’ve got a very good Pelham game on the road next week,” Elmore said.

Benjamin Russell (2-1, 2-0 Region 3) will travel to Opelika.

Mark McLaughlin contributed to this report.