Chelsea comeback falls short in playoff loss
Chelsea High football coach Chris Elmore stood quietly, collecting his thoughts, while standing on his team’s home field on Friday night.
Around him, the Hornet players were dealing with the season’s toughest loss in their own way. Some were in tears while others flopped on the ground. A few stared at the scoreboard. Standout running back Zalon Reynolds, who courageously rushed for 227 yards while playing through the pain of a lower leg injury suffered on the second series of the game, let the tears flow while quietly hugging a Hornet assistant coach.
There was no easy way to accept a 31-23 loss to Bessemer City, the No. 3 seed from Region 4, in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs.
“I just feel bad for our kids,” said Elmore, who had the Hornets, the No. 2 seed from Region 3, in the playoffs for the second successive year and was searching the school’s first playoff football win since 2007. “They are such good kids and play so hard. We just didn’t do the job tonight. Give Bessemer all the credit tonight, they outplayed us. We just made some mistakes. You can’t do that in the playoffs, you get beat.”
Bessemer City (7-4) controlled most of the game, building a 31-7 lead with just under five minutes left in the third quarter. The Tigers did it by clamping down on defense, led by Missouri commit and linebacker Jamal Brooks, and riding the running and short passing game of quarterback Jason Foster. It was Foster who threw three touchdown passes in the first half and the elusive quarterback who scampered 40 yards for a touchdown to give his team the 31-7 lead with 4:42 remaining in the third quarter.
“They’re pretty good on defense, to be honest with you,” Elmore said when asked what went wrong during that time. “They’ve got pretty good players on defense and are hard to block.”
Chelsea (8-3) could have quit but that’s not what the Hornets do.
“It’s just who they are,” Elmore said. “There ain’t no quit in them.”
Instead, they started clawing back into the game. It began with a five-play, 55-yard drive that featured a 29-yard Reynolds run and concluded with a 15-yard scoring pass from Matthew Marquet to Josh Gregg and a two-point conversion pass by the same duo.
The Hornets stiffened on the next two drives but the offense had promising drives end both times. The first ended when a shotgun snap got away and turned into a big loss. The next drive ended at the Tigers 24-yard line when Marquet came up less than a yard short on fourth-and-4 with 6:50 left in the game.
Once again, though, the Chelsea defense forced a quick punt. On the second play of that drive, Marquet was hurt while scrambling for a 15-yard gain. Trainers initially signaled for a cart to take Marquet off the field but he trotted off the field before the cart arrived.
Elmore was asked about his two star players playing through pain on Friday night. Reynolds carried the ball 29 times while noticeably limping for much of the game. Marquet, who threw for 86 yards and two touchdowns and rushed 94 yards, missed just one play.
“There are just gutsy kids,” Elmore said. “They’re just fighters, that’s why I love them.”
Marquet was back on the field when Reynolds raced 44 yards for a touchdown, falling into the end zone while being twisted down by two Bessemer City defenders, with 3:19 left. Marquet then found Gregg for another two-point conversion pass and the lead was whittled to eight points.
Chelsea narrowly missed recovering an onside kick on the ensuing kickoff but the Hornets were able to force a 3-and-out. Bessemer City punter Erik Castillo was unable to handle the fourth down snap and Chelsea had the ball on the Tiger 41-yard line with 2:57 remaining.
The Hornets got a first down and eventually moved to the Bessemer City 21-yard line. Marquet just missed Gregg in the corner of the end zone on third-and-1 and the Hornets were whistled for a false start before the fourth down play got under way. Marquet was then tackled for a yard loss by Bessemer City defensive end MarQuel Shelton to end the Hornets final chance with 51 seconds remaining.
Bessemer City moves on to face unbeaten Park Crossing in the second round. Park Crossing advanced with a 45-14 win over Saraland.