CHAMBERSBURG — The Chambersburg offense did not have its best game on Friday night, but it didn’t matter.
The Trojan defense severely limited Central Dauphin East’s weakened offense and set up its own offense with great field position numerous times in a 37-14 Mid Penn Commonwealth football victory over the Panthers at Trojan Stadium.
Jaykee Menard
Malachi Tasker ran for two touchdowns, quarterback Cam Green passed for two more (to Jashaun Palmer and Seth Gilliam) and Nathan Chambers ran an onsides kick back for a score for Chambersburg (3-6, 3-5 MPC).
The defense held the Panthers (1-8, 1-7 MPC) to just 190 yards, and more than half of that came after the starters left the field.
CD East was hampered by the absence of its top two quarterbacks. Jaedon Chase couldn’t get much going — he carried the ball 11 times for minus-27 yards, and passed for just 32 more yards (23 on a trick play). Freshman Kyle Ellestad injected some life when he entered in the second quarter, but it was 30-0 before East scored.
“We saw they had some issues at quarterback,” Trojan coach Gary Carter said. “We figured we could get after him and we dialed up some pressure. The kids were hungry tonight.”
Defensive end Seth Gilliam said, “They did a lot of stuff that we were expecting, so it was just everybody doing their job.”
The Chambersburg offense had a nice drive to open the game, capped by a perfect play. The O-line gave Green plenty of time, he stepped up into the pocket, got his feet set and threw a tight spiral to streaking Palmer for a 53-yard bomb.
The defense stopped CD East, then got some bonus points when the punt snap went out of the end zone for a safety and a 9-0 lead.
Early in the second quarter, from the East 14, Chase fumbled a poor snap and Colton Horst recovered on the 9. Tasker ran it in from the 3 and Aaron Carillo made the second of five extra points for a 16-0 bulge.
Isaiah Wright
Carter said, “Our kids knew we should have had a lot more points in the first half. Our defense believes in each other and they’re playing aggressively and in our system and they gave us chances.”
The Panthers helped that situation when it fumbled the second-half kickoff and Jayzee Menard recovered the ball at the CDE 22. From there, it took a torturous nine plays to score. The Trojans overcame two holding calls and CD East helped out with a facemask penalty on a fourth-down sack.
The touchdown came when Green rolled right and snuck a pass into Gilliam’s hands from 6 yards out to make it 23-0.
“Honestly, I thought I was covered pretty well,” Gilliam said. “But our quarterback fit in in somehow and I was able to make the play.”
Late in the third period, a short punt set the Trojans up at the East 28 and it took Tasker two plays to score, the first of which covered 27 yards. It was now 30-0.
Carter said, “Our O-line was dealing with a lot of pressure in the first half, but played better in the second half and we got a couple of rushing touchdowns. Tasker really ran hard.”
The Panthers scored twice in the final 10 minutes, one on a 41-yard bomb from Ellestad to Amir Lamelle on a fourth-and-21 play, and the other on a 13-yard run by Amillio Bassett. He ran a reverse to his left, then reversed field and scored in the right-hand corner of the end zone.
But in between those scores, Chambersburg also notched a touchdown. CD East tried an onsides kick, but the Trojans’ Nathan Chambers made a brilliant play to snag the bouncing ball and return it 44 yards to the end zone.
“I lined up, thinking it was going to go deep,” Chambers said. “But he hit it short and my rugby instints kicked in. The ball went over my shoulder, but I kind of knocked it back and caught it and I knew it was time to go. Their kicker was the last guy and I wasn’t stoppin’ for nothin’.”
Carter said, “We were able to mix in a whole lot of kids tonight. I was very proud of them.”
NOTES: Isaiah Wright picked off a pass for the Trojans, as they created 3 turnovers … The Panthers got flagged 16 times for 112 yards, and the Trojans were hit 7 times for 70 yards … Chambersburg finishes its season next Friday at Bishop McDevitt.
Chambersburg 37, Central Dauphin East 14
CD East 0 0 0 14 — 14
Chambersburg 9 7 14 7 — 37
First Quarter
Ch — Jashaun Palmer 53 pass from Cam Green (Aaron Carillo kick), 8:53
Ch — Safety, punt snap went out of end zone, 6:48
Second Quarter
Ch — Malachi Tasker 3 run (Carillo kick), 11:17
Third Quarter
Ch — Seth Gilliam 6 pass from Green (Carillo kick), 7:57
Ch — Tasker 1 run (Carillo kick), 1:50
Fourth Quarter
CDE — Amir Lamelle 41 pass from Kyle Ellestad (kick failed), 9:48
Ch — Nathan Chambers 44 kickoff return (Carillo kick), 9:43
CDE — Amillio Bassett 13 run (Lamelle run), 6:12
Team Statistics
CDE Chbg
First downs 9 9
Rushes-yards 31-47 27-77
Passing 11-22-1 10-22-2
Passing yards 143 137
Total offense 190 214
Fumbles-lost 4-2 2-0
Punts-average 5-26.2 5-34.9
Penalties-yards 16-112 7-70
Individual Statistics
Rushing — CDE, Ellestad 10-42, Kauran Graham 2-25, Bassett 2-16, Lamelle 1-0, Josiah Littlejohn 5-(-9), Jaeden Chase 11-(-27). Chbg, Colton Horst 8-35, Tasker 15-31, Green 4-11.
Passing — CDE, Ellestad 7-15-1-111, Chase 4-7-0-32. Chbg, Green 10-22-2-137.
Receiving — CDE Lamelle 3-56, Demir Wylie 1-42, Jarren Madden 1-23, Robert Bendow 3-13, Bassett 3-9. Chbg, Palmer 1-53, Tasker 3-47, Bryce Deneen 2-17, Horst 2-16, Gilliam 1-6, Chambers 1-(-2).
Interceptions — CDE, Bassett, Maurice Boswell. Chbg, Isaiah Wright.