Chaffee suffers 42-0 homecoming loss

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- The Chaffee football team worked on blocking out a loss from the previous week for 11 straight weeks.

But the Red Devils found themselves trying to block out something totally different -- wins -- the past two weeks.

That, too, can be a learning experience, and Chaffee discovered that the hard way Friday night in a 42-0 homecoming loss to East Prairie.

The Eagles scored on all three of their first-half possessions for a 21-0 lead, then doubled that total in the third quarter as they ended a two-game winning streak for Chaffee (2-4).

Chaffee was coming off an emotional victory over its top rival Scott City.

Chaffee's Zach Dannenmueller runs with the ball after a pass reception before he was tackled by East Prairie's Dalton Golightly during the first quarter Friday in Chaffee, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

"We knew it was going to be tough, but we were probably focusing too much on last week's win," junior quarterback Jordan Yahn said. "We didn't come out as focused as much as we should be, and it probably was our downfall."

Life was good in Red Devils country after the 27-13 victory at Scott City, which followed a home win against St. Pius. It marked Chaffee's first back-to-back wins in two years.

"It probably got to our heads just a little bit," said Yahn, who split time at quarterback with freshman Cody Payne. "We need to stay focused and take every game as a new one and forget about the last one."

East Prairie rolled up 135 yards of offense in the first quarter and finished the night with 342 yards. Chaffee was limited to 166 yards overall.

"We took a step backward," Chaffee coach Charlie Vickery said. "They whipped us on both sides of the ball. We're better than what we showed tonight. I don't think there's any question about that."

Senior running back Aaron Miller scored four of East Prairie's six touchdowns in a variety of ways. Miller had touchdowns runs of 3 and 12 yards, scored on a 10-yard pass and returned an interception 40 yards. Miller finished with 95 yards rushing on 17 carries as he helped the Eagles (4-2) bounce back from a 41-7 thumping against Mountain View Liberty a week earlier.

"We said if we don't bounce back this week it's going to be a long season," Miller said. "We knew we couldn't just bounce back in a small way, we had to do it in a big way to get our confidence back, and we got it back."

It was a much different situation going in than the one that confronted Chaffee.

"They had an emotional game last week, and I know exactly the feeling that coach Vickery was in," East Prairie coach Jason Aycock said. "Because any time you have an emotional game and you try to get your team up for the next week, it's very, very difficult.

"They just had a great win against Scott City, and it's tough to get your team back up because you kind of live in the past a little bit."

East Prairie stopped the Red Devils' game-opening possession on a fourth-and-6 play at the Eagles' 32, then gave Chaffee a steady dose of Miller in an eight-play scoring drive. Miller carried six times for 47 yards on the 68-yard drive.

"We didn't play with emotion at all. Not one single bit tonight," Chaffee junior linebacker Trevor Cannon said. "They came out the first play and ran it down our throats. They came out with emotion and we just kind of got scared right then. It set the tone for the rest of the game right there.

"We've got to play with emotion. If we play with emotion, I think we can play with anybody. But if we don't play with emotion, right there, it shows."

East Prairie also demonstrated a little luck with its emotion on its opening drive as senior guard Alan Miller, Aaron's twin brother, picked up a fumble on a botched exchange and turned it into a 19-yard gain.

"I told them [this week] that in my playing days I got beat at my homecoming with the fumblerooski -- the guard around," Aycock said. "And it's very funny that we talked about that, and then all of a sudden it almost looked like we ran it to perfection. But that was no set play."

The play gave East Prairie a first down at the Chaffee 16, and four plays later Aaron Miller dashed over the left side from 3 yards out with 5 minutes, 51 seconds left in the first quarter.

East Prairie went 69 yards on its next possession, with a 55-yard pass from Connor Scott to Zach Shipman accounting for the bulk of the drive. Shipman was pulled down at the Chaffee 1 but he scored two plays later for a 13-0 lead with 3 seconds left in the opening quarter.

The Eagles went 68 yards on their next possession, which was capped by Aaron Miller's 12-yard run with 4:40 left in the half for a 21-0 lead.

Chaffee was unable to stop East Prairie's Wing-T offense, which mounted 211 yards in the first half.

"They didn't change nothing," Cannon said. "There was nothing we didn't see all week. We knew what was coming, we just played scared and didn't play with emotion."

The Eagles upped their advantage on the first play from scrimmage in the second half when JT Aycock scored from midfield on a double handoff. Aaron Miller took the original handoff and veered for the left side of the line but handed off to Aycock, who went up the middle untouched. The Eagles led 28-0 with just 22 seconds gone in the half.

Aaron Miller scored on a 10-yard pass at the 6:08 mark of the half to increase the lead to 35-0 and commence a running clock.

He intercepted Payne less than three minutes later to conclude the scoring.

"We pride ourselves on our defense," Aaron Miller said. "We could score just two points in a game, and it wouldn't matter to us as long as we got the goose egg up on the board."

Payne played one series at quarterback in the first half with Chaffee trailing 13-0, then played most of the second half.

"In the first half we decided Cody was going to play the third series," Vickery said. "We were going to play it by ear from there."

Payne had seen considerable playing time this season when Yahn went down with a sprained ankle in the season opener. Payne played the entire game in Week 2 and a good chunk of time the following week.

Yahn said after the loss that he's back to 100 percent, but the coaches wanted to give Payne more experience.

"[Jordan]'s the No. 1 guy, but in that situation you need to get your younger guy some snaps under pressure, too," Vickery said. "He's very capable as well."

Yahn was 6 of 13 for 37 yards, while Payne was 7 of 16 for 57 yards. Both threw an interception.

Junior running back Tyson Estes led Chaffee with 45 yards rushing on 11 carries.

"You really have to get better every week," Vickery said. "And the last three weeks we got better, and tonight we didn't get better.

"We'll pick up the pieces. Our goal is to get into the playoffs come the last three. I think that is very tangible, but we've got to play to our potential, and tonight we didn't. We just got whooped."

East Prairie 13 8 21 0 -- 42

Chaffee 0 0 0 0 -- 0

First Quarter

EP -- Aaron Miller 3 run (Frankie Nave kick), 5:51

EP -- Zach Shipman 1 run (kick fails), :03

Second Quarter

EP -- Miller 12 run (Connor Scott run), 4:40

Third Quarter

EP -- JT Aycock 50 run (Nave kick), 11:38

EP -- Miller 10 pass from Scott (Nave kick), 6:08

EP -- Miller 40 interception (Nave kick), 3:34

EP C

First downs 17 11

Rushes-yards 30-216 22-72

Passing yards 126 94

Passes 5-8-0 13-29-2

Punts 1-29 4-27.5

Fumbles-Lost 0-1 0-1

Penalties-Yards 4-35 2-20

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- East Prairie, Miller 17-95, Alan Miller 1-50, Shipman 5-23, Scott 1-12, Jesse Soto 3-58, Nave 2-3, Brad Beck 1-6; Chaffee, Tyson Estes 11-45, Jordan Yahn 3-1, Cody Enderle 4-14, Trevor Cannon 4-12

PASSING -- East Prairie, Scott 5-8-126-0; Chaffee, Yahn 6-13-37-1, Cody Payne 7-16-57-1.

RECEIVING -- East Prairie, Shipman 1-55, Devin Cook 1-9, Mikey Russell 1-28, Soto 1-24, A. Miller 1-10; Chaffee, Zach Dannenmueller 1-10, Mike Rutherford 6-33, Andrew Terhune 2-38, Alex Davie 2-6, Enderle 1-5, Estes 1-2.