Chaffee football team rallies to beat St. Vincent

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Tyson Estes' reaction to carrying three St. Vincent defenders into the end zone for the winning touchdown Friday?

"Really?"

The Chaffee senior running back bulled his way in from 19 yards out with St. Vincent defenders draped over him desperately trying to bring him down.

The 5-foot-6 Estes finally fell, but it was into the end zone.

"I was tractor beaming," Estes said. "I felt hands on me. I just try to keep my feet running, stay up. I actually didn't think that I got in. I didn't know where I landed, but everyone just started attacking me."

The touchdown with 40 seconds left in the fourth quarter marked the Red Devils' first lead of the night after they trailed by three touchdowns at halftime.

"No emotions right then," Estes said. "I was tired. A little bit later, I kind of realized that was a big play, so obviously happy about it."

Chaffee's defense did just enough to stop the Indians for the 42-35 victory to open Class 1 District 2 play.

"It's one of the most memorable moment I've had here at Chaffee in all my high school career," Chaffee senior quarterback Jordan Yahn said. "I never seen it happen, not with us. It happened tonight, and it just feels amazing."

The Red Devils faced second-and-2 from the St. Vincent 19-yard line, and Estes first was hit at the line of scrimmage. But he didn't go down. He got hit again around the 10 and the Indians tried holding on, but Estes kept chugging.

"He's a hard runner," Yahn said. "Just seeing him run over four guys, it doesn't surprise me. That was kind of surprising to see him go in. I thought it would take a couple more plays than that."

Estes finished with 241 yards on 31 carries. He scored twice.

"A self-made man," Chaffee coach Charlie Vickery said about Estes. "I've never had a kid who's worked any harder than him. He works so hard on his body in the right way. He stretches and lifts and runs. He never missed a workout in the summer and the offseason. He's made himself into that type of player."

Estes' touchdown in the final minute spoiled an exceptional night by St. Vincent quarterback Tim Schumer. The senior went 25 of 36 for 301 yards and four touchdowns.

St. Vincent capitalized on a Chaffee mistake to open the scoring. Taylor Sauer grabbed a Jimmy Golden fumble on the Red Devils' first play from scrimmage, and Alex Winkler ran in from 10 yards out on the next play for an early lead.

Schumer went to work after that. He carved up the Chaffee defense for 202 yards and three touchdowns before halftime.

"They had more people in the box to try to take the run away," St. Vincent coach Paul Sauer said. "We were able to throw the ball pretty effectively in the first half. It was a basic numbers game."

Chaffee gained 188 yards in the first half but only managed one touchdown.

"The coaches said we've got the right game plan," Estes said. "It's not the coaching that's hurting us. You guys have to go out there and execute. Basically the coaches weren't that hard on us. It was more the players, the leaders. We told ourselves we had to pick it up and get ourselves in gear. We gave them too much momentum, and that's what they feed off of."

Chaffee started coming to life when it opened the second half with a 13-play drive that covered 80 yards for a touchdown. Estes carried six times on the drive, including from 3 yards out for the score.

The Red Devils then forced the Indians to punt. St. Vincent punter Sean Martin tried to get off a kick, but Chaffee sophomore D.J. White broke free up the middle and smacked the ball.

"We go after every punt pretty hard," White said. "I didn't really expect me to be the one to go up there and block it. I'm glad I was the one who did it."

Charlie Montgomery picked up the blocked punt and raced into the end zone untouched to cut the Red Devils' deficit to 28-21.

"Everyone got pumped up and hollering and screaming," White said. "That was the most fired up we've been all season."

Montgomery made his presence felt on the next play from scrimmage. He picked off a Schumer pass and returned it 13 yards to the St. Vincent 43, which set off more hooting and hollering from the Chaffee sideline.

A 36-yard pass from Yahn to Zach Dannenmueller set up the Red Devils at the St. Vincent 7. They punched it in three plays later when Yahn rolled out to the right on a naked bootleg to even the score at 28-28.

St. Vincent responded with its best drive of the second half. It went 73 yards on 14 plays to grab a 35-28 lead with 9 minutes, 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Schumer hit Trent Elder with a touchdown pass for the second time in the game to regain the lead.

Chaffee's ground game accounted for 80 of the 90 yards on the ensuing drive, with Yahn scoring up the middle to pull even at 35-35.

St. Vincent earned a first down on the next drive, but it stalled at its own 43. Martin, also the Indians' place-kicker, has decent range, but the St. Vincent offense couldn't get close enough for him to try.

"Probably 40 [yards] or less," coach Sauer said about where he would have tried a field goal. "You never know about the wind. The wind had died down somewhat. We were hoping to get one off. That's what I was looking at. If we had an opportunity, we were going to try it."

Chaffee's winning drive started at its own 19, and Estes ran for 65 of the 81 yards on the drive. Chaffee managed to recover two fumbles on the drive before Estes' winning rumble.

"The most important thing is the kids believed they could come back," Vickery said.

The Chaffee defense limited the Indians to 121 yards in the second half after surrendering 271 before halftime. Schumer only threw for 99 yards in the second half.

"They changed fronts," he said. "They dropped linebackers back in coverage. A lot of what we did was underneath stuff, so they kind of took that away and that kind of took the wind out of our sails a little bit. Then we started off slow."

Vickery credited defensive coordinator Jerry Dement with the adjustment that slowed down the Indians in the second half.

"Coach Dement basically went to a 3-5 look on certain looks that they gave us," Vickery said. "We took a lineman out and got an extra back in."

The Indians face a tough road to reach the playoffs. They host defending Class 1 state champion Valle Catholic on Friday after letting a 21-point lead at halftime slip away against Chaffee.

"We've battled this all season long," coach Sauer said. "We'll play one good half. We were hoping that we would come out with a lot of enthusiasm and set the tone for the second half and take what they gave us. We struggled there early then gave up a blocked punt for a touchdown and the momentum swung their way and it just snowballed. We just didn't have an answer."

The Red Devils have an extra day to prepare for their next contest. They play Cleveland NJROTC on Saturday in St. Louis.

"We have to have a hell of a practice week," Estes said. "We have to come out every day and go through our drill periods the right way. We can't have guys jacking around or sometimes we're kind of slow."

Scoring Summary

St. Vincent 14 14 0 7 -- 35

Team 0 7 21 14 -- 42

First Quarter

S -- Alex Winkler 10 run (Sean Martin kick), 7:45

S -- Trenton Gremaud 6 pass from Tim Schumer (Martin kick), :35

Second Quarter

C -- Charlie Montgomery 5 run (Jordan Yahn kick), 7:35

S -- Trent Elder 47 pass from Schumer (Martin kick), 6:10

S -- Winkler 24 pass from Schumer (Martin kick), :21

Third Quarter

C -- Tyson Estes 3 run (pass fail), 7:04

C -- Montgomery 20 punt block return (Montgomery pass from Yahn), 5:59

C -- Yahn 5 run (Yahn kick), 4:33

Fourth Quarter

S -- Elder 10 pass from Schumer (Martin kick), 9:20

C -- Yahn 3 run (Yahn kick), 4:58

C -- Estes 19 run (Yahn kick), :40

Team Statistics

First downs (St. Vincent-Chaffee) 20 26

Rushes-yards 25-91 56-395

Passing yards 301 86

Passes 25-36-2 7-10-0

Punts 3-68 1-49

Fumbles-lost 1-0 3-1

Penalties-yards 2-16 2-25

Individual Statistics

RUSHING -- St. Vincent, Alex Winkler 4-17, Tim Schumer 10-26, Derek Joggerst 10-36, Taylor Sauer 1-12. Chaffee, Jimmy Golden 1-(-4), Tyson Estes 31-241, Trevor Cannon 5-28, Charlie Montgomery 11-89, Jordan Yahn 8-41.

PASSING -- St. Vincent, Tim Schumer 25-36-301-2. Chaffee, Jordan Yahn 7-10-86-0.

RECEIVING -- St. Vincent, Levi Gotto 2-19, Alex Winkler 11-140, Taylor Sauer 4-24, Trenton Gremaud 2-14, Trent Elder 6-104. Chaffee, Charlie Montgomery 4-37, Zach Dannenmueller 3-49.