Danbury drops regular-season finale to Chalker

LAKESIDE — For the most part, Danbury kept pace offensively. The problem for the Lakers was they couldn't get a stop on the defensive side of the ball. After going scoreless in its first two drives, Chalker scored almost every time it had the ball the rest of the game, rolling to a 58-34 Northern 8 Conference win at Biro Field on Saturday. "Offensively, when we're not beating ourselves with penalties and turnovers, we can score with anybody," Danbury coach Brett Sykes said. "They do a nice job with that group. We couldn't get a stop on defense." Danbury fell to 7-3 overall and 4-3 in league play while the Wildcats improved to 8-1, 6-1. The two will rematch next Saturday in the semifinals of the N8 playoffs. "We have to set the edge on defense, create turnovers and not have stupid penalties," said Sykes of the next week. The Lakers trailed just 22-20 at halftime, but bad tackling on the second-half kickoff return gave Chalker good field position. It took the Wildcats just one play to cash in as Vince Delvecchio went 27 yards for the touchdown and 28-20 lead just 21 seconds into the second half. Danbury didn't respond, although the Lakers got inside the Chalker 10. A false start penalty put Danbury behind the sticks and a pair of incomplete passes hurt the drive. The Wildcats kept coming offensively, driving 93 yards in just five plays before scoring. That put Chalker up 34-20 with 3:59 left in the third quarter. Danbury and Chalker traded blows from there, but the Lakers couldn't find that key defensive stop. Danbury needed just three plays to answer. Tommy Dean hit Taylor Monak for a 35-yard pass before scoring on an eight-yard run. Dean added the two-point conversion to bring Danbury within 34-28. Chalker used a short field in response. Quarterback Tanner Kelson exploded for a 44-yard touchdown. Delvecchio added the two-point conversion, pushing the Wildcats back up 42-28. The Lakers tried to keep up as Dean completed a 31-yard touchdown pass to Grey Maltese. The conversion run failed, but Danbury was still within 42-34 with 10:39 to play. Chalker was relentless on offense. Tegun Noble hauled in an 11-yard touchdown pass from Kelson before Delvecchio's conversion made it 50-34. Danbury turned the ball over on downs and that gave the Wildcats another offensive opportunity. This time, Noble caught a pass and turned it into a 51-yard touchdown from Kelson. The two-point conversion gave Chalker a 58-34 advantage. Kelson finished with five touchdown passes to go with the rushing touchdown. "Now that our guys know how physical, fast and good their athletes are, they'll be better prepared," Sykes said. "(Kelson) has to be the best athlete in the league. If you don't make tackles on him, he's going to make you look silly." Danbury couldn't have scripted a better start. Eli Knight intercepted Kelson on the Wildcats' first drive. On the next play, Drake Turinsky exploded for an 84-yard touchdown run. Trent Taylor caught the two-point conversion from Dean and the Lakers led 8-0 with 8:33 left in the first quarter. Chalker took more than five minutes off the clock on its next drive before punting. Danbury used the rest of the first quarter clock and scored on the third play of the second quarter on a 10-yard run by Dean. That gave the Lakers a 14-0 lead with 11:33 to go until halftime. "We knew we had to set the edge," Sykes said. "We tried to be aggressive and send a bunch of people at them. We knew if we made them throw that they were probably going to throw it to us a couple times, but they leaned us at the end." Chalker answered as Delvecchio caught a 17-yard touchdown pass from Kelson. Danbury fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Wildcats pounced. This time, Delvecchio scored on a six-yard run and the conversion run from Kelson tied the game at 14 with 6:03 remaining in the second quarter. "They have a very special athlete that plays quarterback," Sykes said. "They also have a couple other special athletes that when they have the ball in their hands, they're hard to get down. We turned the ball over and they kind of stole the momentum from us. They tied it up after we had that special teams turnover." Chalker 0 22 20 16 — 58Danbury 8 12 8 6 — 34 D — Drake Turinsky 84 run (Trent Taylor pass from Tommy Dean)D — Dean 10 run (pass failed)C — Vince Delvecchio 17 pass from Tanner Kelson (run failed)C — Delvecchio 6 run (Kelson run)C — Tegun Noble 17 pass from Kelson (Delvecchio run)D — Grey Maltese 11 pass from Dean (run failed)C — Delvecchio 27 run (run failed)C — Delvecchio 58 pass from Kelson (run failed)D — Dean 8 run (Dean run)C — Kelson 44 run (Delvecchio run)D — Maltese 31 pass from Dean (run failed)C — Noble 11 pass from Kelson (Delvecchio run)C — Noble 51 pass from Kelson (Ethan Bosch run)