Freeman’s five touchdowns leads Chester to win over Henderson

WEST CHESTER — Chester remained undefeated with a 42-27 win at West Chester Henderson Friday evening, surviving a  rally in the fourth quarter by the Warriors.

“I think the best thing about the win tonight is that we persevered,” Chester coach LaDontay Bell said. “We’ve had some ups and downs, but we continue to fight. The guys played well tonight. We had some happen in the second half that we’re not proud about, so we have to work on those at practice.”

The victory improves Chester’s record to 6-0, while the Warriors drop to 2-4.

At the center of Chester’s offense was quarterback Isaiah Freeman. The 6-3, 195-pound senior threw touchdown passes of 62 and 49 yards, and scored on TD runs of 42, 33 and 1 yards. On each of Chester’s touchdown marches, he came up with key plays, running and passing, to keep possessions moving.

“Some plays you just can’t dial up and you have to let the players be athletes, and tonight Isaiah showed that he’s a tremendous athlete,” said Bell. “We’re very pleased with his play tonight.”

Henderson kept Chester’s explosive offense off the field for the first 7 ½ minutes with an opening possession of 15 plays and 65 yards. That drive was kept alive on 4th and 11 at the Chester 30-yard line when Henderson senior quarterback Eddie Smink hit Terrance Turman for a 15-yard completion.

Three plays later, junior running back Cole Foster scored on a 3-yard run up the middle.

Chester came right back with a 12-play, 73-yard touchdown drive. Freeman made a couple of big third-down plays, hitting wide receiver Kylie Harper for 19 yards on 3rd-and-13, then running for 17 on 3rd-and-14 from midfield.

The drive culminated with a 6-yard TD run up the middle by running back Noble Thompson, cutting Henderson’s lead to 7-6.

After making a defensive stop, Chester put together a six-play, 80-yard drive capped by a 49-yard touchdown pass from Freeman to a wide-open Cymeer Brown. The score sent the teams into the half with Chester up, 14-7.

“That was a tremendous play call by our offensive coordinator Lamar Shaw,” said Bell. “He’s done a tremendous job with the play-calling this year.”

The Clippers took the second half opening kickoff and marched 67 yards in 10 plays make it 21-7. Freeman hit Charles Thompson, Dorian Miller and Will Smith for completions, then a 13-yard run by Jabree Davis put the ball at the Henderson 1 yard line. Freeman plunged over from the score.

After a long Henderson drive ended at the Clippers’ 23-yard line, Chester came back with a 62-yard touchdown pass from Freeman to Smith. Smith caught the ball on the left sideline around the Henderson 30 and eluded two defenders for the touchdown.

“William Smith is very elusive, he’s very talented, and that was a great throw by our quarterback,” said Bell.

Henderson then drove 60 yards in 5 plays for a touchdown, thanks to three pass completions by Smink, the last one a 26-yard TD pass to senior Casey Killoran, who grabbed it one the left sideline and ran in for the score.

On the following drive, Chester faced a 4th-and-1 at the Henderson 42, and Freeman ran left, shook off several would-be tacklers and dashed down the sideline for a 42-yard touchdown run to make the score 35-14.

Turman took the ensuing kickoff, found an opening up the middle and outraced several defenders down the left side for an 86-yard touchdown.

Two plays later, a Chester fumble gave Henderson the ball at the Clippers’ 15-yard line, and on the following play Smink hit Logan Krapf for a touchdown to cut the visitors’ lead to 35-27 with 6:33 left.

When Henderson failed to get a first down on 4th-and-26 from the Chester 45 yard line, the Clippers took over with 2:22 left. The visitors picked up a vital first down when Davis rumbled for a 25-yard gain to the Warriors’ 35. On 3rd-and-8, Freeman took off for a 33-yard touchdown run to make it 42-27 with 1:51 left.

“Isaiah has great field vision; he saw a lot of things out there tonight,” said Bell. “This young man is a leader, and he showed his talents tonight against Henderson. Our defense played well tonight; we had some letups and we’ve got to stay focused. At some point, I think we tend to (let up), and we can’t do that; we’ve got to keep our foot down on the pedal.

“We need to keep working on our discipline. As we move forward in this season, we’ve got to remain disciplined. If we remain disciplined in our execution, we’ll have a tremendous season.”