Hornets falter in second half in loss to Pelham
CHELSEA -- It was a tale of two halves when the Chelsea High School football took on Pelham at home on Friday night. An exhilarating first half for the Hornets was followed up by a disappointing second half, as Pelham went on to win the Class 6A, Region 3 matchup, 36-23.
“What can you say?” said Chelsea head coach Chris Elmore after the loss. “I thought we played pretty well in the first half, but we didn’t execute and we make some mistakes that you can’t make in the second half and that was huge.”
Chelsea started off the game with the ball but was forced to punt after three plays. Pelham, with the early momentum after the quick stop, marched down the field on a 10-play, 60-yard drive to go up 7-0 with 6:10 to go in the first quarter. The Panthers scored on an 18-yard pass from junior quarterback Matthew Rye to junior slot receiver Kasey Clark.
The Hornets compounded the bad start with a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, which Pelham recovered. Starting at the Chelsea 29-yard-line, the Panthers were in prime position to do even more damage; however, the Hornets defense held strong and forced Pelham to kick a field goal.
Junior kicker Greg Blue tacked on the 42-yard field goal to give Pelham the 10-0 lead with 4:29 to go in the first quarter.
Although Pelham was up 10-0 early, Chelsea’s defensive stop to force the field goal seemed to give the Hornets a bit of momentum.
On their next possession, Chelsea put together a mix of run and pass plays as it nickel-and-dimed its way down the field. Hornets quarterback Turner Griffin led his team on the drive, completing five of his six passes for 65 yards. The payoff on the 77-yard drive came in the form of a 31-yard touchdown pass from Griffin to senior receiver Colby Lambert with 33 seconds to go in the first quarter.
The next possession for Pelham would end with an interception by senior defensive back Dylan Seabolt, but the Hornets offense could not take advantage of the field position and was forced to punt.
After the stop, the Panthers got the ball back and struck quickly. On the second play from scrimmage, Rye hit running back Dylan Peterson on a shovel pass. Peterson, breaking a few tackles along the way, dashed for the 68-yard touchdown to put Pelham back up 16-7, following the missed extra point.
A fumble by Chelsea on the next possession gave the opponent great field position and the Panthers were able to tack on another touchdown, this one on a four-yard run by senior Nicolas Blackburn. Pelham converted on the two-point conversion to go up 23-7 with 4:25 remaining in the first half.
Down by 16 with under five minutes to play in the second quarter, things looked bleak for the Hornets before halftime, but Elmore’s team was not ready to quit yet.
Chelsea received the ball after the Pelham touchdown and, using its hurry-up offense, put together an eight-play, 69-yard touchdown drive in just over two minutes. Two huge runs by junior Vick Lindsey to start the drive were capped by four consecutive rushes by senior running back Kendrick Simpson, the last of which ended in a 6-yard touchdown with 2:10 to go in the half. The two-point conversion, converted on a quick pass from Griffin to receiver Michael Gibbs, put the Hornets within a score.
On Pelham’s next possession, Chelsea forced two incompletions and a sack. The Panthers were forced to punt it away but the snap was too high and a Hornet player was able to get a hand on it, blocking it and sending it out of bounds.
With 1:30 left in the half, Chelsea had the ball at the Pelham 32-yard-line. Four plays later, the Hornets were in the end zone. On fourth-and-10 with 10 seconds to go, Griffin hit running back Collier Blair on a screen pass. Blair juked the defenders and broke a tackle to go 32 yards for the score. The Hornets hit the two-point conversion to tie the game 23-23 at halftime.
“I’m really proud of the way our guys kept fighting in the first half,” Elmore said. “We were down 16 points but [the players] didn’t give up, and they made plays to keep us in the game.”
Going into the locker room at halftime, Chelsea had all the momentum. But in the second half, everything changed.
The Hornets offense, which gained nearly 200 yards against Pelham in the first half, disappeared. Chelsea gained only three first downs in the second half and its four possessions ended in a punt, a fumble and two turnover-on-downs.
“It’s an emotional game, and I think our emotions got the best of us a little bit in the second half,” Elmore said. “We didn’t execute like we should have and we made costly mistakes. And you’ve got to give credit to Pelham for making the adjustments they needed to make to stop us.”
Defensively, the Panthers defense pitched a shutout in the last 24 minutes. On offense, Pelham scored on three of its final four possessions, hitting two field goals and scoring on a 1-yard touchdown run to start the fourth quarter.
The 36-23 loss puts Chelsea at 0-5 on the year, and Elmore expressed his displeasure with the team’s 2017 start.
“There’s no silver lining right now,” he said. “It’s frustrating for me and it’s frustrating for the players. We just have to keep plugging.”
Chelsea finished the game with 126 rushing yards and 269 yards of total offense. Griffin ended the night 14-of-23 with 143 yards passing. Pelham outgained the Hornets in both categories, rushing for 208 yards and passing for 150.
Chelsea’s next game will be on the road at Gardendale on Sept. 29.