Jacob D. Ball
For The Ironton Tribune

CHESAPEAKE — Last night’s matchup between the Ironton Fighting Tigers and the Chesapeake Panthers took place on Chesapeake’s home field. While the field itself belongs to Chesapeake School District, when Ironton’s defense was on the field, they claimed possession of a very specific tract of land on almost every play. The tract of land in question was the line of scrimmage. The Tiger front would not be held back by the Chesapeake offense as it gained penetration into the backfield in order to disrupt the Panther offensive attack. Ironton held Chesapeake to 74 yard of total offense, even more impressive when you take into account 65 of those yards came from the last two plays of the game.
The tone of this game was set from the outset when on the third play of the game, Ironton’s Angelo Washington dove on a Panther fumble giving the Tiger’s the ball at the Chesapeake 23 yard line. The recovery led to Ironton’s Landen Wilson gaining 23 yards on two plays leading to the first score of the game. The scoring kept on going for Ironton in the first quarter while their defense kept up the pressure. Tayden Carpenter had 2 touchdown passes in the quarter, one 29 yard throw to Aaron Masters for 29 yards and another to Angelo Washington for 36 yards. The defense even got in on the scoring when Ashton Duncan scooped up another Chesapeake fumble, going 37 yards leading the Tigers a 28-0 advantage in the first quarter.
The rest of the game pretty much followed the tone of the first quarter. In the second quarter, Landen Wilson reached the endzone again for a 30 yard score and Ashton Duncan scored again this time on a 27 yard pass from Carpenter. The second half saw the Ironton defense still dominate even when Chesapeake pulled a nifty pop-up onside kick to get possession of the ball at the Ironton 30 yard line, they even benefited from a penalty to get inside the Ironton 10 yard line, but the Ironton defense still kept the Panther out of the endzone. Terrell Mize and Braden Schreck added rushing touchdowns to make the score Ironton 56 Chesapeake 0. The Panther faithful did get to leave the field with a little bit of joy. The last two plays of the game saw Dilen Caldwell run for 31 yards followed by a 34 yard touchdown run, leading the final score to be Ironton 56 Chesapeake 7.
Rushing Leaders
Ironton Landen Wilson 3-53 2TD, Jaquez Keyes 6-53, Terrell Mize 1-21 TD, Branden Schreck 3-2 TD
Chesapeake Dilen Caldwell 10-50 TD
Passing Leaders
Chesapeake Dilen Caldwell 1-2 3 Yards
Ironton- Tayden Carpenter 8-10 170 Yards 3 TD
Receiving Leaders
Chesapeake- Dannie Maynard 1-3
Ironton- Angelo Washington 1-36 TD, Jaquez Keyes 1-35, Lincoln Barnes 2-29, Aaron Masters 1-29 TD, Ty Perkins 1-15, Aiden Young 1-15, Ashton Duncan 1-11 TD
Scoring Summary
First Quarter Ironton- Landen Wilson 3 yard run (Matt Sheridan Kick) 9:47, Ironton- Aaron Masters 29 yard pass from Tayden Carpenter (Matt Sheridan Kick) 5:36, Ironton- Angelo Washington 25 yard pass from Tayden Carpenter (Matt Sheridan Kick) 2:53, Ashton Duncan 37 yard fumble return (Matt Sherdian Kick) 42.9
Second Quarter- Landen Wilson 30 yard run (Matt Sheridan Kick) 10:42, Ironton- Ashton Duncan 11 yard pass from Tayden Carpenter (Matt Sheridan Kick) 5:27
Third Quarter- Ironton- Braden Schreck 3 yard run (Wesley Neal Kick) 2:28
Fourth Quarter- Ironton- Terrell Mize 21 yard run (Wesley Neal Kick) 7:43, Chesapeake- Dilen Caldwell 34 Yard Run (Lucas Shephard Kick) 26.2