Freshman QB leads Chaffee football team to first win since 2013

After running down the performance of his quarterback, longtime Chaffee football coach Charlie Vickery concluded that Landon Tenkhoff "had a pretty good night for a freshman" before quickly correcting himself.

"He had a good night for anybody," Vickery said.

Tenkhoff finished his first varsity game with 292 of Chaffee's 327 all-purpose yards and led the Red Devils to a 20-14, come-from-behind victory over Grandview to mark Chaffee's first win since the 2013 season.

"He's going to get better every time he goes out," Vickery said about Tenkhoff. "That's his first varsity game, and he wasn't even a full-time quarterback last year. He played quarterback and running back in the eighth grade, but he did a really good job tonight."

Senior running back Devon Nanney scored the winning touchdown on a 4-yard run with 49 seconds to go to give the Red Devils their first lead of the night.

"Our line blocked extremely well, too," Vickery said. "I thought our line did a really good job."

The Red Devils' final drive, which Tenkhoff orchestrated, was set up by junior Brayden Glueck's interception in the end zone with about three minutes left in the game.

"It was fourth down, and they were on our 11," Vickery said. "He picked it off, so we got to start from 20 instead of the 11, so that worked out. Getting that nine yards made a big difference."

After giving up more than 40 points a game last season Vickery was impressed with his defense, which held Grandview to 191 total yards. Particularly important was limiting the Eagles to 89 yards rushing on 39 attempts. Grandview rushed for 380 yards on 52 attempts in a 20-6 win against Chaffee last season.

Chaffee tied the game at 6-6 in the first quarter on Tenkhoff's 27-yard touchdown run before the extra point attempt was blocked. After a Grandview score, the Red Devils tied it again when Tenkhoff connected with Nanney for a 50-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter. Nanney added the two-point conversion.

The score remained 14-14 until the final minute.

Tenkhoff finished with 163 yards rushing on 20 attempts, good for 8.1 yards per rush, and 129 yards in the air on 13-of-22 passing. Nanney had three catches for 52 yards, and Josh Medrano had four for 43 yards.

The Red Devils, who travel to Portageville next week, are 1-0 after going 0-9 last season.

"I think they were really excited, and we needed to get a win to get some confidence," Vickery said.

He has preached building confidence through putting in work in the offseason but said the on-field victory will pay bigger dividends.

"I just think it was tremendously important to do that," Vickery said. "They needed to see results from all their hard work."