Hornets unable to slow down ground game

OPELIKA – Tenth-ranked Chelsea was unable to stop fourth-ranked Opelika’s ground game Friday, falling on the road, 48-24.

“Win or lose, this is a great team and a great bunch of coaches and great bunch of players. I’m still extremely proud of them. We just got out-played tonight by a team that was better than us tonight. Are they better than us every game? I don’t know. That will remain to be seen, but they were much better than us tonight,” Chelsea High School head coach Chris Elmore said.

Chelsea jumped on the board first with a 31-yard field goal by Tyler Thomas, but Opelika unleashed back Weldrin Ford for three consecutive Bulldog touchdowns.

“I thought you had two good football teams, and they did a much better job of executing against us. When you get in the red zone against them, you’ve got to score touchdowns,” Elmore said.

Ford, who racked up 142 yards on nine carries in the first quarter, scored from 32 yards out on the Bulldogs’ first possession, and then punched one in from 3 yards after a 3-yard Hornets’ punt gave Opelika field position at the Chelsea 30. On the next possession, he took the handoff 54 yards on the first play to give Opelika a 21-3 lead in the opening quarter. Ford finished the game with 243 yards on 19 carries.

The Hornets answered with 9:21 to play in the half on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Marquet to Josh Gregg, but Opelika answered with two touchdown passes from JD Worth to close the half up 35-14. Worth had 130 yards on 7-of-14 passing in the game. 

The Bulldogs led 42-10 before Chelsea found the end zone again in the fourth quarter on a 29-yard pass from Marquet to Jay Vickers. Opelika responded with a 64-yard touchdown run by Conner Smith and Chelsea later capped the night with a 7-yard TD run by Austin Stallworth.

Marquet was 11-of-17 passing for 133 yards and two TDs. The Hornets spread out its rushing attack between Zalon Reynolds and Marquet with 56 yards each, while Stallworth had 36 yards. Vickers had 42 yards receiving on four catches, while Lee Rickard and Hunter Blackburn had 28 and 24 yards, respectively.

Chelsea (5-2, 2-2 in Class 6A, Region 3) will return home Oct. 14 to host Chilton County. 

- Mark McLaughlin contributed to this report.