Chester powers past Carmi-White County, 41-18
CARMI --The Carmi-White County Bulldogs jumped to a 12-0 lead early in the second quarter, but the Chester Yellow Jackets made all the plays down the stretch and came roaring back to a 41-18 victory at Carmi on Friday night.
<span>Charles Morefield ran for two touchdowns, Blake Eggemeyer had two more and Jorden Berner returned an interception 53 yards for a score for Chester, which improved to 4-0 overall.</span>
<span>Morefield finished with 122 yards on nine carries, while Eggemeyer had 101 yards on 14 carries.</span>
<span>"</span><span>A lot of that speaks well to our conditioning, and that's one of the things that scares me about Carmi is that Coach (Kurt) Simon always has them in great condition also," said Chester coach Bryan Lee on his team's comeback. "We also needed to make several adjustments at halftime to fix some of the things we were doing."</span>
<span>CWC's Logan Weller started the game by running back the opening kickoff for an 85-yard touchdown and the Bulldogs limited Chester to only three plays in the first quarter in building their lead.</span>
<span>After that point, Chester used its quickness and a sterling third down conversion rate (10-of-14) to dominate the rest of the game. The Yellow Jackets limited Carmi to just 78 yards rushing, including 18 from standout running back Logan Weller.</span>
<span>"Number 12 (Weller) is an outstanding runner and we really focused our game plan on stopping him," Lee said.</span>
<span>The Yellow Jackets scored their first touchdown early in the second quarter when Charles Morefield outran the Bulldogs on a 54-yard TD.</span>
<span>Three minutes later, Blake Eggemyer rushed for a six-yard TD and Chester took a 14-12 lead.</span>
<span>A nifty scramble by Carmi quarterback Jake Simon found Justice Stubblefield for a first down. Two plays later, Simon hit Weller for a 34-yard touchdown.</span>
<span>The teams went to the break with CWC leading 18-14.</span>
<span>After an extended halftime featuring a fundraising helicopter golf ball drop, Chester came out firing on all cylinders. </span>
<span>Defensively, the Yellow Jackets focused their game plan on stopping Weller. They limited the Bulldogs to just 26 yards of offense in the second half.</span>
<span>Chester made the most of its opportunities, including a backbreaking third and long screen pass to a wide-open Eggemeyer, who turned it into a 68-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter.</span>
<span>"Chester, Illinois, has provided us with kids who work for a living, they work hard for a living, they don't get rattled, they're blue-collar and they're like 'You know what? You still gotta go to work,'" Lee said. "This is third shift and third shift started with the machine breaking or a fight in D Block.</span>
<span>"But you know what? We got it fixed and we're going to keep doing our job and the community has provided us with that kind of material in kids to keep going no matter what."</span>
<span>Chester added two scores late in the fourth period to produce the final margin, which was not reflective of how tight the contest was for most of the game.</span>
<span>The Yellow Jackets moved to 4-0 and will travel to Johnston City on Saturday for a 1 p.m. contest at Ralph Davison Field. It is also the Indians' Homecoming game.</span>