The Strawberry Crest Chargers entered last Friday’s game against the Brandon Eagles 2-0 with back-to-back wins on the road versus East Bay and Middleton. This game was the Chargers first home game of the year.
The Chargers won the coin toss and deferred to the second half. The Eagles started the game off nicely with a kick return to the 35 yard line. That was the best part of that possession for the Eagles as the opening snap was bad, and went flying over the quarterback’s head. He recovered the ball but lost 7 yards on the play. Brice Schmidt had a nice tackle for loss for the Chargers, followed by a small run on a draw play, which forced the Eagles to punt on a 3 and out.
The Chargers started their first offensive drive at the 39 yard line with 9:25 left in the first quarter. The Chargers got settled nicely with a solid run, which opened a big play by quarterback, Zy Floyd, who found Calvin Francis on a slant and Francis took it to the house for a 60 yard touchdown.
The Chargers then executed an onside kick and recovered the ball at midfield. Running back Zion Weems started the second drive with back to back carries. The Chargers fumbled on third down, recovered it, but had to punt on 4th down.
Brandon got the ball at their own 18-yard line with six minutes left in the first. The Eagles started this drive with a bubble screen and a stretch run, which brought them to third down. The Chargers nearly intercepted it, but it went through the secondary’s hands, landing in the Eagles wide receiver’s hands for a first down. The Eagles then ran it three times in a row, failing to get the first down, which forced them to punt it once again.
The Chargers got the ball around midfield and Floyd found Francis again for a touchdown, this time on a deep route. The Chargers extended their lead to 13-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Brandon started the second quarter down two possessions and lost yards due to a quarterback run attempt. The Chargers got a huge sack by multiple Chargers to force another 3 and out on the Eagles. The Chargers then blocked the punt and took over at the 30 yard line. Unfortunately, the energy quickly shifted on the very next play as the Chargers fumbled, turning the ball over in the process. With 9:53 remaining in the half, Brandon got their best play of the game to this point with a 20 yard run, marking the first time they reached the Chargers side of the field. The momentum shifted to the Chargers though as Brandon got sloppy with back-to-back penalties of 15 and 10 yards, which put the Eagles back on their side of the field. The Eagles then attempted a quick pass, but Chargers DB Hunter Hall was all over it, not allowing the Eagles wide receiver to get anywhere. The Eagles were forced to punt and their luck on special teams continued to be bad as the snap didn’t give the punter time to kick it, instead, he opted to run and got nowhere.
Crest took over on the Eagles 30-yard line and Weems got a five-yard run on the carry. The Chargers then called a timeout to evaluate their options with 6 minutes left in the half. Zy Floyd was sacked on the play after the timeout, but he got those yards back and then some, finding Francis again, which made it a 4th and short. The Chargers lined up to go for it and the Eagles handed them a first down thanks to an encroachment penalty. The Eagles then called a timeout to regroup with 4:29 left in the half. After the timeout, Floyd found wide receiver Timmy Woods for the red zone touchdown on a slant play, which extended the Chargers lead to 19-0 with 3:55 left in the half after a missed 2-point conversion.
The Eagles got a touchback on the kickoff, but then continued to hurt themselves with penalties, this time a false start. They attempted a bubble screen, but multiple Chargers swarmed them. The Eagles did get a first down on a curl route to their wide receiver, but then the Chargers got a nice tackle for loss on another bad snap by the Eagles center. On third and long, the pass was picked off by Chargers’ Cam Crowe. The Chargers took over at midfield with 1:25 left in half. They got nothing going on that drive and punted it after their first 3 and out of the game. Brandon got a first down on their first play of the drive, but didn’t have any timeouts left so it was officially half time at this point with the Chargers up 19-0.
The Chargers got the ball to start the second half and the kick return set them up nicely, as they started at the 40 yard line. Weems opened it up with a first down on his first touch of the half. Floyd then found Timmy Woods for another touchdown on a deep pass play and that meant Floyd broke the Strawberry Crest Chargers record for most passing touchdowns in a single game with 4. The Chargers were up 25-0 with 11:06 left in the third.
Brandon took over at the 20 yard line to start. They attacked the Chargers early on with three straight runs to get the first down. The Eagles decided to keep running, ultimately getting to the Chargers 40-yard line before Crest called a timeout to give the defense a breather with 6:30 left in the third. After the timeout, the Eagles attempted their ninth run in a row, but this time, the Chargers were all over it with a loss of two. On third and long, the Chargers finally ended the Eagles drive as Steven Diaz got a sack. A personal foul on the Chargers backed them up to their 20-yard line after the punt. Weems continued to get carries to start the drive, but then Floyd’s night ended as quarterback Sevin Bagnato checked in for the Chargers. A bad snap was recovered by Crest, which made it third and long. A timeout was called with 2:05 left in the third. After the timeout, the Chargers were sacked and were forced to punt it.
Brandon took over at their own 35-yard line. The Eagles started the drive with a false start and they failed to even get those penalty yards back, forcing another 3 and out to end the third quarter, with the Chargers up 25-0.
The 4th quarter started with some small runs, but Sevin picked up the first down on a 5-yard run. They got to about midfield where they had reached 4th down, but an unnecessary personal foul on the Eagles, gave the home team a first down. Running back Thomas Feliciano checked in and started running it for the Chargers. Then a pass interference on the Eagles put the Chargers in the red zone. Weems had a 14-yard run and the Chargers reached the goal line. Unfortunately, the Chargers fumbled and the Eagles took over at the 5 yard line with 6:26 left in the game.
Brandon stayed in their lane, continuing to run the ball in the second half and once again it was working as they got a couple first downs. It was all for nothing though as another personal foul on Brandon backed the Eagles up. The backup Eagles QB then threw an interception to John Baxter and the Chargers took over at midfield with 3:18 left in the half. Chargers wide receiver, Jabari Barefoot, got his first catch of the game on a curl route to start the drive. They reached 4th down, but were given another first down due to the Eagles encroachment. The Eagles continued to show how undisciplined they were, with another personal foul penalty called on them. That then put the Chargers at the 20-yard line with under a minute left.
The final score was 25-0 Chargers and they are now 3-0 on the season.