Chaffee defeats Malden to win SEMO South Conference championship

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Chaffee junior quarterback Peyton Montgomery took the snap from center, retreated quickly from the line and began to zig-zag wildly.

Only this time he was pursued by his teammates -- his senior brother, Charlie Montgomery, and senior Devon Yahn -- and not the Malden defense.

The play was the second on the Red Devils' final possession, securing a spot in Chaffee football history.

Players mobbed in the center of the field and fireworks ensued.

Chaffee had won its first SEMO South Conference title since 1979 with a 28-18 victory over Malden, improving to 7-0 overall and 5-0 in the conference.

"It's amazing," said Chaffee junior lineman Trevor Morehead. "A couple of us have been playing football since the second grade, and this is what we've been working toward our whole lives. I'm just glad I could experience this with my team because we've developed into a brotherhood over the course of the season."

Malden ended Chaffee's last 6-0 start in 1969, when current Red Devils coach Charlie Vickery was quarterback.

"Just a huge win for us, 7-0 for the first time since 1956," said Vickery, referring to Chaffee's lone unbeaten team in school history.

Chaffee's Thomas Robbins celebrates as the clock runs out in the fourth quarter of the Red Devil's 28-18 win over the Malden Green Wave Friday at Chaffee High School. (Adam Vogler)

Peyton Montgomery was at his scrambling best. He finished with just 30 yards rushing on 13 carries, but he extended plays with his elusiveness and turned them into big ones.

"We call him Peyton Manziel, not Johnny Manziel. Peyton Manziel," said senior Jimmy Golden, who led Chaffee with 51 yards rushing on 13 carries. "He can get out of it. As long as he keeps doing that we'll be good."

Peyton Montgomery threw for two touchdowns and ran for a third, completing 13 of 21 passes for 217 yards.

"This is the best win of my career," Montgomery said. "It's indescribable how it feels."

He connected on three long passes with senior Devon Yahn in the first half, including a 42-yard scoring strike, for 121 yards. Yahn finished with 139 yards receiving.

The first hook-up, on a short slant pattern, went for 56 yards to move the Red Devils from their own 39 to the Malden 5. Peyton Montgomery scored on a 2-yard keeper over the left side two plays later. Yahn also hauled in the conversion pass for an 8-0 lead with 5 minutes, 57 seconds left in the first.

Malden overtook Chaffee primarily through the running of junior Dremond Robinson, who finished the night with 264 yards on 33 carries. He had all but 19 of Malden's 283 yards rushing.

"He was really shifty and had some success with the ball, but we ended up making the adjustments and got to him," Morehead said.

Robinson had 159 yards by halftime, playing the primary role in both Malden scoring drives.

Robinson picked up 36 yards on three carries to open the first scoring drive, and sophomore Nick Thompson covered the final 20 yards on the fourth play.

Robinson carried six times for 58 yards on the following possession, scoring from 8 yards out. Both of Malden's two-point conversions failed, but it led 12-8 with 11:22 left in the second quarter.

Chaffee responded with a 10-play scoring drive that started at its own 46. The series included a successful fourth-and-1 conversion, and was capped by Peyton Montgomery's most elusive moment of the night on a third-and-11 play at the Malden 20.

He dropped back to pass, began to take off upfield and stopped short of the line of scrimmage before a deep circle back to his left and all the way over to the right side of the field.

"I rolled back to my right and [Charlie] put his hand up and I knew all the defense was coming up so I just dumped it to him," Peyton Montgomery said. "I was about to take off but I saw they had a good pursue angle, so I rolled to my right and that's when [Charlie] put his hand up."

Charlie Montgomery was wide open along the left sideline around the 20 and only needed a seal block from receiver Layton Tenkhoff near the goal line to score with 7:08 left for a 14-12 lead.

"The quarter before that he told me, if he's scrambling to just mirror him, and he'll try to get it to us if we're open," Charlie Montgomery said. "We kind of planned that out a little bit, and it worked for the better."

The play was the showcase moment of what the Malden defense had to contend with.

"They're loaded with athletes, and Peyton makes them go," Malden coach Joel Wyatt said. "He's a difference-maker. Don't get me wrong, you take him away and they still have them good skill kids, but he's the straw that stirs the drink. He's a handful."

The freestyle play of Montgomery played out throughout the night.

"That's when he's at his best," Wyatt said, "when you got everybody covered, and he's just back there toying with you, playing backyard football and making good decisions."

Chaffee extended its lead to 20-12 on its next possession, with Yahn pulling in his TD pass deep down the left side between a pair of defenders with 3:48 left in the half.

"It was a perfect pass in between two defenders," Yahn said. "It was right on the money."

Malden had the game clock run out on its final possession of the first half at the Chaffee 3. The 10-play drive that started at its own 43 netted only bad vibes on the Malden sideline when Robinson was stopped on a second-and-4 run from the 5.

"That was huge," Charlie Montgomery said. "For me that was probably the biggest play of the game. That was a huge defensive stop."

Chaffee held just a 209 to 199 advantage in total yards in the half but had an eight-point lead and the momentum.

"You go into half and try to tell your kids its OK, we've got the ball at the start of the third quarter, but when it's all said and done, it was big," Wyatt said. "We could have had some momentum going in feeling good about ourselves and not coming away with six or eight points, that was just a back-breaker so to speak."

Malden opened the third with a 29-yard TD run by Robinson to close the gap to 20-18.

Chaffee scored on its second possession to widen the gap. Charlie Montgomery capped the 41-yard, seven-play drive with a 1-yard run with 2:47 left in the third quarter, and then caught the conversion pass for a 28-18 lead.

Malden's ensuing possession was stopped on downs on the second play of the fourth quarter at the Chaffee 5. The drive stalled on three consecutive passes after Robinson had moved the ball to the 8 on first-and-goal from the 10.

The run-oriented Green Wave were then short on clock to make up a two-possession deficit. Malden was thwarted on its final two possession, fumbling on the first and turning the ball over on downs on the second.

There was time enough only for Chaffee players and fans to savor the victory as the final seconds ticked off.

"This is about dreams coming true," Peyton Montgomery said. "I've been playing football since second grade. We've worked so hard over the summer. As a team, we were at all the practices and we knew that hard work would pay off, and tonight it did."

Chaffee will attempt to move to 8-0 on Friday when Jefferson visits.

r, and then caught the conversion pass for a 28-18 lead.

Chaffee 28, Malden 18

Malden 6 6 6 0 -- 18

Chaffee 8 12 8 0 -- 28

First Quarter

C -- Peyton Montgomery 2 run (Montgomery pass to Devon Yahn), 5:37

M -- Nick Thompson 20 run (kick failed), 4:52

Second Quarter

M -- Dremond Robinson 8 run (run failed), 11:22

C -- Charlie Montgomery 20 pass from P. Montgomery (pass failed), 7:08

C -- Devon Yahn 42 pass from P. Montgomery (run failed), 3:48

Third Quarter

M -- Robinson 29 run (run failed), 9:11

C -- C. Montgomery 1 run (P. Montgomery pass to C. Montgomery), 2:47

M C

First downs 16 16

Rushes-yards 38-281 36-88

Passing yards 46 217

Passes 9-16-0 13-21-1

Punts 3-32.7 4-32.2

Fumbles-Lost 2-2 1-0

Penalties-Yards 5-35 4-25

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Malden, Robinson 33-264, Thompson 4-22, Chapen Riley 1-(-3); Chaffee, C. Montgomery 7-12, P. Montgomery 13-30, Jimmy Golden 13-51, Yahn 3-(-3)

PASSING -- Malden, Riley 9-16-0-46; Chaffee, P. Montgomery 13-21-1-217

RECEIVING -- Malden, Robinson 2-3, Jeremy Jones 4-20, Zach Gray 1-9, Thompson 1-5, Edwin Hale 1-9; Chaffee, Layton Tenkhoff 4-33, C. Montgomery 4-39, Yahn 4-139, Travis Hall 1-6.