Chaffee football team's playoff hopes take a major hit

~ The Red Devils committed seven turnovers in a 49-29 district loss to Cleveland NJROTC on Saturday

ST. LOUIS -- Seven turnovers ruined Chaffee's chances of locking up its second consecutive playoff berth.

The Red Devils fumbled eight times, lost six of them and threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown in their 49-29 loss to Cleveland NJROTC in Class 1 District 2 football action Saturday.

"It's one of those really bad games," Chaffee senior Jordan Yahn said. "It happens to everybody. Wrong game to have too many turnovers."

The Commanders scored 25 points off the Chaffee turnovers.

"All year we haven't been able to capitalize," Cleveland quarterback Brandon Harrell said. "This week we came out and proved everybody wrong and capitalized on every turnover."

The seven turnovers didn't include a bad snap on a punt. Yahn fielded the ball and tried to run with it, but was stopped for a 3-yard loss. Cleveland scored on the next play.

Chaffee also was called for a roughing the kicker penalty when the Cleveland punter took a bad snap and rolled to the right. He started running then got off a rugby-tyle kick just before the Chaffee defenders tackled him, which resulted in the roughing the kicker call and an automatic first down. Cleveland scored a touchdown on the next play.

"You've got to handle adversity, and we didn't handle it very good today," Chaffee coach Charlie Vickery said. "We certainly had a lot of it."

Despite the early miscues, Chaffee had a chance to grab the lead midway through the second quarter. Three runs gave the Red Devils a first down at the Cleveland 18-yard line trailing 18-13. But running back Tyson Estes fumbled on the next play, and Cleveland recovered with 5 minutes, 40 seconds left before halftime. Harrell ended the ensuing drive when he hit Monteze Latimore over the middle, and he raced 76 yards for a touchdown and 24-13 lead at the intermission.

"We couldn't have played any worse than we did the first half and we're only down 11 points," Vickery said. "You feel like you can come back. But we couldn't get the corner turned. We had goal-line stands that were really good. But we were in a hole and couldn't get out of it."

Unfortunately for the Red Devils, their woes continued in the second half. Their first three drives after halftime ended with a blocked punt, a fumble then an interception.

"We felt like we were playing terrible and we just needed to step up and try to turn the game around," Yahn said. "It seemed to just keep going downhill for us."

Chaffee started to make a run in the fourth quarter. Yahn escaped a sack and hit Alex Davie from 20 yards out to cut the Red Devils' deficit to 31-21. But Cleveland answered with a six-play drive to regain a comfortable cushion at 37-21.

The Red Devils fumbled on the ensuing kickoff, and the Commanders scored on the next play.

"I know that I was probably a little bit careless with the ball and they went after it almost every play, more than most teams," Estes said. "I guess I was worried about making a big play. Not really worrying about security. That one kickoff where I fumbled, I thought I had it. I knew they were going after it and I had it wrapped up, but they still got it out."

Estes said the Commanders attacked the ball with more intensity than any team the Red Devils faced this season.

"They were just fighting for it the whole play," he said. "You'd be going down on the ground and they'd still be going after it. They were just really aggressive toward stripping the ball. If one of them caught up to you from behind, they would come up underneath and punch it out."

Zach Dannenmueller's 70-yard kickoff return set up Chaffee's last touchdown to trim its deficit to 43-29 with 4:17 left, but Cleveland responded with a five-play drive that took a minute to ice the game.

"Every week we talk to them stay up in the fourth quarter," Harrell said. "Coach gets us prepared for the fourth quarter. This year we had a lot of letdowns in the fourth quarter. The captains had to talk them up, make sure they were focused and keep playing. All year we think we had the game won. This week, we stayed focused and played through the whole game."

The Red Devils did a decent job of slowing down the Commanders' running game, but Cleveland enjoyed tremendous success through the air. Harrell threw for 298 yards and four touchdowns.

"This week we had a nice line," he said. "They were giving me a pocket to throw in and I had more time. The wide receivers [were] catching the ball this week. They was playing up on us so we went deep on them. They start sagging off, so we went curls on them. It was just smart coaching."

Harrell only completed 11 of his 25 attempts for an average of 27.1 yards per catch. He had five completions that went for more than 25 yards.

"We tried a little bit of everything," Vickery said about the Red Devils' defense. "We tried to bump them. We tried man. We tried zone."

Estes again topped 100 yards rushing. He finished with 137 yards and two scores to lead the Red Devils.

Chaffee isn't out of playoff contention, but it will need help. The Red Devils can get in with a win over Valle and a Cleveland loss. They also can get in with a win and a Cleveland win, but then the point differential enters the equation. Chaffee stands at minus-6, while Cleveland is at zero. Chaffee also can get in with a loss and a Cleveland loss, but points again enter the mix.

St. Vincent can make the playoffs with a win by at least 11 points and a Chaffee loss by at least four points.

"We just seem like we've been on our heels in this district playoffs," Yahn said. "With St. Vincent, going down in the first half last week, it just seems we've been off our game. We just need to get back on it."

Chaffee 0 13 0 16 -- 29

Cleveland 12 12 7 18 -- 49

First Quarter

Cleve -- Montey Dickerson 43 pass from Brandon Harrell (run fail), 4:31

Cleve -- Dominic Ball 13 run (kick fail), 3:42

Second Quarter

Chaffee -- Tyson Estes 5 run (Jordan Yahn kick), 11:54

Cleve -- Juwaun Mister-Smith 44 pass from Harrell (kick fail), 11:04

Chaffee -- Yahn 1 run (run fail), 8:10

Cleve -- Monteze Latimore 76 pass from Harrell (kick fail), 2:26

Third Quarter

Cleve -- Mister-Smith 21 INT return (Latimore kick), 3:16

Fourth Quarter

Chaffee -- Alex Davie 20 pass from Yahn (Davie pass from Yahn), 8:28

Cleve -- Ball 30 run (pass fail), 5:36

Cleve -- Dickerson 33 pass from Harrell (kick fail), 5:20

Chaffee -- Estes 4 run (Davie pass from Yahn), 4:17

Cleve -- Latimore 16 run (kick fail), 3:17

Ch Cl

First downs 17 14

Rushes-yards 39-155 37 113

Passing yards 153 298

Passes 13-25-1 11-25-1

Punts 3-64 4-151

Fumbles-lost 8-6 6-1

Penalties-yards 5-67 9-79

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Chaffee, Tyson Estes 28-137, Charlie Montgomery 4-19, Jordan Yahn 7-(-1). Cleveland NJROTC, Dominic Ball 19-67, Montese Latimore 13-38, Brandon Harrell 5-8.

PASSING -- Chaffee, Jordan Yahn 13-24-153-1, Zach Dannenmueller 1-1-0-0. Cleveland NJROTC, Brandon Harrell 11-25-298-1.

RECEIVING -- Chaffee, Zach Dannenmueller 1-12, Jimmy Golden 4-61, Charlie Montgomery 4-43, Alex Davie 3-37, Jordan Yahn 1-0. Cleveland NJROTC, Montey Dickerson 4-105, Juwaun Mister-Smith 1-44, Dominic Ball 2-19, Ed Ware Jr. 2-44, Monteze Latimore 2-86.