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A big offensive night for the Chelsea Hornets featured 56 points as they improved to 4-0 on the season with a 56-28 victory over county foe Chelsea. (For the Reporter/Cari Dean)

By ALEC ETHEREDGE |Publisher 

CHELSEA – A powerful stretch of 28-unanswered points in the opening half on Friday night, Sept. 20 was more than enough to help the Hornets pull away for their first 4-0 start since 2015.

Chelsea fell behind 7-0 early in the game, but it was all go from there, as the Hornets responded with 28 unanswered in the opening half and then pulled away for a 56-28 win.

“We felt like this was a playoff game tonight,” Chelsea head coach Todd Cassity said after the win. “I felt like this was going to be a big game to maybe put is in the situation to get in the playoffs. Our kids sort of took that mentality all week that to us, this was a playoff game.”

Calera got the scoring started with a thrilling first offensive drive for the Eagles that was capped off by a remarkable touchdown grab from Braxton Brooks.

On a fade to the left sideline, he leapt in the air over the defender, wrapped his hands around the ball and trapped it against the defender’s helmet before ripping it off and falling into the end zone for a 7-0 advantage with 7:45 left in the opening quarter.

From there, however, it was all Hornets with powerful run plays and turnovers making the difference.

Chelsea responded with several big runs on the ensuing drive from Chase Stracener before a 26-yard touchdown from Ethan Prickett evened the score with 5:04 left in the quarter.

The quick strike became the first of 28 unanswered points for the Hornets in the half.

After coming up with a defensive stop, Chelsea got the ball back late in the first quarter and reeled off a big play to start the second quarter when Stracener found a seam up the middle and raced 51 yards to the house for the touchdown to make it 14-7 within the first 10 seconds of the period.

The defense came up with another stop on Calera’s ensuing possession, which set up another heavy dose of Stracener who plunged into the end zone for a 21-7 advantage with 4:48 left in the quarter.

Chelsea’s defense continued to put the offense in good positions to score when the Hornets got an interception from Kenneth Wesley that was returned all the way to the Eagles’ 13-yard line.

One play later, Miller Bauman hit CJ Durbin for a 13-yard touchdown strike that made it 28-7 late in the half.

The Hornets almost grabbed one more score before the half after a fumble recovery put them back in good field position.

A touchdown pass, however, was called back due to an illegal motion penalty, and eventually, a third-and-goal from the 20 pass fell incomplete as time expired in the half.

“The defense set us up, but it’s just that mentality of something bad happening, they don’t care, they just play the next play,” Cassity said of the offense’s quick outburst of 28-unanswered to end the half. “Our kids just keep playing the same all the time. We just keep playing and they play so hard. Every single one of them.”

That end to the first half set the tone for Chelsea’s offense the rest of the night.

The Hornets came out and scored the first touchdown of the second half on a 33-yard touchdown pass from Bauman to Turner Simpson deep down the left sideline for a 35-14 advantage.

Calera did respond with a touchdown pass from AJ Johnson to Cameron Hagler, and the Eagles had some offensive success in the half, but they couldn’t come up with the necessary stops to erase the deficit.

Prickett then scored the first touchdown of the final quarter to make it 42-14 with 10:01 left in the game.

“Ethan Prickett, who had never played running back before in his life, comes in, we had to find more guys, and he gets two touchdown runs on two carries,” Cassity said. “We just have so many guys who are unselfish.”

Chelsea went on to score 14 more points on Aiden Hughes and Ty Handley, both on short passes from backup quarterback Grant Propst to close out the 56-28 victory.

“We look at it like we are 2-0 in the region,” Cassity said. “That’s really what matters to us. The kids are starting to feel it that we are something better than people thought we would be.”

Stracener led Chelsea with 34 carries for 181 yards, 164 of which came in the first half. Bauman also had a solid night throwing the football, finishing 8-12 for 114 yards.

Calera got 317 passing yards from Johnson on 24-of-40 passing with Hagler the top target behind 115 yards and two touchdowns.

Chelsea will now hit the road to take on 0-4 Paul Bryant in a non-region game, while Calera has a bye week before a non-region road trip to take on Brookwood.

Chelsea stats provided by Mark McLaughlin.

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