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Chase Stracener rushed for 207 yards and three touchdowns in Chelsea's win at Paul W. Bryant High School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on Sept. 27.
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Turner Simpson races to the end zone for a 61-yard touchdown reception on Chelsea's first play of the second half against Paul W. Bryant High School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on Sept. 27.
TUSCALOOSA -- Miller Bauman and Chase Stracener each accounted for more than 200 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Chelsea High School football team past Paul Bryant, 49-12, in non-region action Friday.
While Chelsea was one point shy of its first back-to-back 50-point games since 2016, the win moved the Hornets to 5-0 through the first half of the season.
“It’s great to be able to score these points. I thought at times our defense played really well and then at times we just sort of relaxed. We can’t do that against good football teams. These guys practice hard. They play hard. They do everything you ask them to do, and I hope they can continue to do that,” said Chelsea head coach Todd Cassity.
“Our schedule is about to get pretty tough, so we’ve got to clear up the mistakes we’re making and get better at the things we’re supposed to be doing,” he added.
Chelsea’s defense forced a fumble on the first play of the game, and sophomore Briston Hardy scooped it up. It was his first of two fumble recoveries in the game. The play set up a short three-play scoring drive, capped by a 20-yard Stracener touchdown run.
“(Briston’s) going to be a heck of a football player,” Cassity said. “As he continues to grow and build his body, he’s going to be something else. He hits harder than anybody we’ve got on the team and he’s a great player for us.”
Bauman went to the air on the next two scores, a 29-yard touchdown to Caden Summers and a 2-yard pass to Adam Wheeler to send Chelsea into halftime up 21-0. He did it again coming out of half, hitting Turner Simpson for 61 yards on the first play of the third quarter.
The Stampede came alive in the third quarter, as Javion Johnson connected with Cordairo Spigner Jr. on a 73-yard touchdown pass for the program’s first points since Sept. 6. Both teams traded scores in the third quarter with Stracener scoring on a 1-yard run, followed by a Brandon Johnson 20-yard run and Summers 20-yard run for his second touchdown of the game.
Brandon Johnson finished with 250 total yards, with 130 receiving and 120 rushing. He had an 86-yard reception in the first half and was tackled at the 1-yard line, before the Stampede fumbled with 48 seconds left in the first half. Bryant also missed a field goal early in the game.
Stracener capped the scoring early in the fourth quarter with a 50-yard touchdown run to cap a nine-second, one-play drive that put him over 200 yards for the game. He finished with 207 yards on 25 carries. Bauman completed 9-of-20 passes for 213 yards.
Chelsea (5-0, 2-0 in Class 6A, Region 3) will return to region action next Friday when it hosts Chilton County. Paul Bryant falls to 0-5.
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