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Briarwood's J.R. Tran-Reno tries to break through a Chelsea tackler in the Lions' first game of the season. (For the Reporter/Cari Dean)

By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

Close to 16 hours after kicking off on Friday, Aug. 31, the Briarwood Christian Lions were able to take down the Chelsea Hornets 19-6 in a game that took place at two different stadiums and in two different months.

After starting the game on Friday night, the Lions and Hornets got back on the field on the morning of Saturday, Sept. 1, with a scheduled restart of 9.

“You just worry about the mindset and how a delay like that is going to affect the boys, but I think both teams responded really well,” Briarwood head coach Fred Yancey said. “They came out with a lot of pride and hustle, and I think we did also.”

While the two teams had close to 13 hours to regroup after the game was delayed with Briarwood up 9-0 and 11 minutes left in the second quarter, not much changed early in the restart on Saturday morning, but both teams eventually woke up and started to make plays.

“As far as decisions go, nothing really changed,” Yancey said. “We had forever to talk about adjustments last night during the delay, that we felt like we ran out of things to coach. We were tired of coaching by then.” 

When the game kicked off on Friday night, it was all Briarwood with both sides of the ball scoring points for the Lions.

The first two points of the game came on Chelsea’s second drive of the game. With the Hornets’ offensive struggles carrying over from the week before, BCS forced them into a three-and-out and a fourth-and-20 situation.

Briarwood was able to get in the backfield quickly on Chelsea’s punt attempt, and two players got a hand on the football forcing it all the way out of the back of the end zone for a safety, which gave the Lions a 2-0 lead with 6:38 left in the opening quarter.

Briarwood’s offense, however, couldn’t get going early on either, which led to a punt fest and failed conversion attempts over the next couple of drives.

Finally, the Lions saw some progress on their third drive of the game, and it came after J.R. Tran-Reno’s biggest play of the game was negated due to a penalty.

Following that play, the first-year starter at quarterback found running back Luke Prewett in the middle of the field for a screen pass that Prewett proceeded to take 59 yards to the house for the game’s first touchdown and a 9-0 lead for Briarwood with just over a minute left in the first quarter.

That was the last bit of action to take place before the ominous clouds and lightning moved over the field.

Coming back the next morning, both teams looked a bit sluggish early on from the early start, which led to three consecutive punts, but on Briarwood’s second drive of the day and fifth of the game, we finally saw some life on offense.

Briarwood made it all the way down inside the Chelsea 10-yard line for a first-and-goal opportunity, but a couple of plays later, Tran-Reno, possibly still working out some kinks at quarterback, fumbled the ball and turned it over to Chelsea to keep the game scoreless during Saturday’s portion of play.

“He’s a work in process, who is also going to get better as the weeks go on,” Yancey said after Tran-Reno’s first start.

Later in the game, despite never really getting comfortable in the pocket, Tran-Reno showed why he was dangerous.

But first, Turner Griffin started to show some promise for Chelsea and started to look the best he has in two years of starting.

After recovering the fumble, Chelsea put together a drive that saw Griffin complete passes of 20 and 15 yards. Eventually, the Hornets were forced to punt, but they had finally put some positive plays in their back pockets.

That drive ended the first half with Briarwood leading 9-0, but both teams were just starting to break the seal on offense.

On the first two plays of the second half, Briarwood was able to gain 58 yards on two separate runs. One was an 11-yard run from Tran-Reno and the other a 47-yard run from Luke Prewett.

Just before the half, Prewett was wearing no jersey or pads and had ice taped to his right shoulder, but on that second play of the second half, he broke five tackles on a powerful run, showing he was fine.

“We ran the ball very well. We really did,” Yancey said.

The Lions had to settle for a 20-yard field goal from Noah Nall on the drive, however, after a penalty set them back after earning first-and-goal inside the 10.

Griffin continued to make passes for Chelsea trying to will them back into the game, but the Hornets weren’t able to get any closer until getting a huge break with 9:45 to play in the game.

Briarwood fumbled a snap looking to punt the ball, and Chelsea eventually took over at the Lions’ 18-yard line with its best opportunity of the game.

On the first play, Griffin hit Andrew Bartlewski for 14 yards, and two plays after that, he hit Kaleb Tindall for a 6-yard touchdown pass. After the PAT was blocked, Chelsea trailed 12-6 with 8:38 left to play.

This is when Tran-Reno said enough is enough.

On the ensuing drive, he took control and ran for 44 yards on five carries, before capping the drive off with his first rushing touchdown of the year from a yard out.

“He took us on his shoulders on that last drive and performed really well,” Yancey said.

Griffin tried his best to bring an answer of his own for the Hornets, completing four passes for 48 yards on the ensuing drive, and running for an additional 10 yards, but a failed fourth down conversion inside Briarwood territory ended Chelsea’s hope.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy day, and it wasn’t an easy day,” Yancey said. “Nothing easy about it, but it was good to come out on top.”

Briarwood will now travel to take on 2-0 Pleasant Grove on Friday, Sept. 7, in the Lions’ first region game of the season, while Chelsea will travel to Carver on Thursday, Sept. 6, for its first region game as well.

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