Jefferson football team outlasts Chaffee in offensive duel

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- An early 24-point deficit had all the makings of a rout, but the Chaffee football team found some fight with a second-half surge.

Jefferson watched a 32-point lead at halftime dwindle to eight points when the Red Devils took advantage of a fumble at the Blue Jays' 46-yard line and scored seven plays later on a 4-yard run by Landon Tenkhoff at the 9:10 mark of the fourth quarter.

The only problem was that Chaffee couldn't find an answer for Jefferson, which finished with 535 yards on the ground and pulled away late to secure a 72-54 win Friday at Mark Whitaker Memorial Field.

The game featured 1,148 combined yards as both teams traded blows in compiling 126 points.

"This is my 11th year of coaching, and I've never been a part of a game like that," Blue Jays coach Alex Rouggly said. "... We couldn't stop them. We couldn't stop the quarterback. We couldn't stop anything in the second half, and it was one of those deals where our kids battled through some adversity. I'm proud of them for that. They showed some signs of toughness, but we've got to get better defensively.

Jefferson's Andrew Graves carries the ball for a touchdown in the first half against Chaffee on Friday, Oct. 9, 2015, in Chaffee, Missouri. (Trent Singer)

"Our defense played like I've never seen them play this year in the second half. We had breakdowns, and we just didn't make plays. That's a tip of the cap to their offense and their playmakers and a tip of the cap to their kids for not laying down when they could've laid down and for playing hard for all four quarters."

Jefferson (5-3) was led by freshman running back Andrew Graves, who scored the first of his five touchdowns on a 39-yard run with 8:04 remaining in the opening quarter. He finished with 328 yards on 11 carries, averaging a whopping 29.8 yards per carry. His brother, senior Austin Graves, added 111 yards on 11 rushes and was 2-of-2 passing for 38 yards, including a 20-yard pass to Josh Mobley that was set up by a fumble on Chaffee's ensuing kickoff. A two-point conversion run by Andrew Graves pushed Jefferson's lead to 16-0 with 7:21 left in the first quarter.

"Both of those Graves kids are very special kids," Rouggly said. "I know their dad was a great running back at Festus, and their mom was a really good athlete. They've just carried on that family tradition of being great athletes, and I can't say enough about those two."

Jordan Shockley's 32-yard touchdown run pushed the Blue Jays' lead to 24-0 at the 1:12 mark of the first quarter before Chaffee (2-6) answered with a 12-play, 65-yard scoring drive that was capped by a 7-yard run by Tenkhoff with 9:28 to go in the first half. However, Jefferson answered on the next play from scrimmage when Austin Graves dashed 65 yards to the end zone to push the Blue Jays' lead back to 24 points.

Devon Nanney's 7-yard run concluded another methodical scoring drive for the Red Devils, one that spanned 66 yards in 13 plays, but Jefferson again scored on the next play from scrimmage, this time an 86-yard burst by Andrew Graves. Chaffee turned the ball over on downs on its next possession, and Andrew Graves struck again with a 57-yard touchdown run, giving the Blue Jays a 48-16 advantage heading into halftime.

A chaffee assistant coach celebrates with offensive lineman Devohn Foulk after the Red Devils scored a late touchdown against Jefferson on Friday, Oct. 9, 2015, in Chaffee, Missouri. (Trent Singer)

"We couldn't stop them," Chaffee coach Charlie Vickery said about his team's defense. "That was the key, too. We could never stop them."

The Red Devils scored on their opening possession with a 15-yard pass from Tenkhoff to Nanney, and Shockley, who finished with five rushes for 72 yards, had a 15-yard run that allowed Jefferson to build its biggest lead at 56-22 with 7:01 remaining in the third quarter.

Then things took a turn.

Chaffee scored 26 straight points, beginning with a 47-yard touchdown pass from Tenkhoff to Josh Medrano at the 3:59 mark of the third quarter. Alex Burch kicked two successful onside kicks for the Red Devils. The first led to a 19-yard touchdown pass from Tenkhoff to Nanney, and the second resulted in an 8-yard touchdown run by Tenkhoff, which cut Chaffee's deficit to 56-40 with 11:45 left in the game.

"I commend that we fought back the way we did and got a couple onside kicks," Vickery said. "We didn't just throw the towel in because it would've been pretty easy when we were behind 48-16 and hadn't stopped them yet."

Tenkhoff was 1-of-7 passing for 13 yards in the first half but completed 14 of his 22 attempts in the second half for 202 yards and three touchdowns.

"The wide receivers started running their routes really good and caught the ball, and our linemen did a great job pass blocking," Tenkhoff said about his team's second-half adjustments.

A failed onside kick by the Red Devils led to a 24-yard touchdown run by Andrew Graves, and Tenkhoff countered by concluding a 7-play, 68-yard drive with his fourth touchdown run of the night, a 26-yard run. Chaffee failed on the two-point conversion and trailed 64-54 with 4:28 to go in the game.

Tenkhoff racked up 214 yards on 34 carries, drawing high praise from Rouggly.

Jefferson's Josh Mobley runs with the ball during a game against Chaffee on Friday, Oct. 9, 2015, in Chaffee, Missouri. (Trent Singer)

"He showed a lot of poise being a quarterback and having the ball in his hands, and I understand exactly why he has the ball in his hands every down and every snap," Rouggly said. "You want your best athlete to have the ball in their hands every snap, and he's a smart, young man with the way he reads defenses and things like that.

"We threw some different things at him defensively, and he read the defense and was very poised in the pocket."

Medrano finished with four grabs for a game-high 68 yards while Nanney added 72 yards on 14 carries and hauled in four receptions for 37 yards, finishing with three scores. He's one of six seniors who played his last home game for Chaffee.

"I want to give him the ball every play I can," Tenkhoff said about Nanney. "I'm sorry that it's his last game at home and everything. ... I feel the seniors, too. It's tough. I don't want to look forward to being a senior at my last home game."

Chaffee entered the game averaging 17.6 points per game, and Vickery hopes the offensive outburst will give his players some confidence moving forward.

"I never felt like they were going to stop our offense, but we were just in such a hole," Vickery said. "... We have something to build upon. In the first half, we had absolutely nothing to build upon. We were able to move the football, but in the second half, I thought we did pretty much what we wanted to do."

Jefferson 24 24 8 16 -- 72

Chaffee 0 16 18 20 -- 54

First quarter

J -- Andrew Graves 39 run (Andrew Graves run), 8:04

J -- Josh Mobley 20 pass from Austin Graves (Andrew Graves run), 7:21

J -- Jordan Shockley 32 run (Andrew Graves run), 1:12

Second quarter

C -- Landon Tenkhoff 7 run (Devon Nanney pass from Tenkhoff), 9:28

J -- Austin Graves 65 run (Trevor Davison pass from Austin Graves), 9:11

C -- Nanney 7 run (Tenkhoff run), 4:11

J -- Andrew Graves 86 run (Shockley run), 3:39

J -- Andrew Graves 57 run (Austin Graves run), 1:05

Third quarter

C -- Nanney 15 pass from Tenkhoff (run failed), 8:05

J -- Shockley 15 run (Austin Graves run), 7:01

C -- Josh Medrano 47 pass from Tenkhoff (run failed), 3:59

C -- Nanney 19 pass from Tenkhoff (pass failed), 1:16

Fourth quarter

C -- Tenkhoff 8 run (pass failed), 11:45

C -- Tenkhoff 4 run (Nanney run), 9:10

J -- Andrew Graves 24 run (Andrew Graves run), 7:40

C -- Tenkhoff 26 run (pass failed), 4:28

J -- Andrew Graves 45 run (Shockley run), 2:58

J C

First downs 11 24

Rushes-yards 32-535 64-346

Passing yards 38 229

Passes 2-2-0 16-30-0

Punts-average 0-0 2-32.5

Fumbles-lost 3-2 5-1

Penalties-yards 7-80 9-70

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Jefferson, Andrew Graves 11-328, Austin Graves 11-111, Shockley 5-72, Ross Morrison 4-17, Mobley 1-7; Chaffee, Tenkhoff 34-214, Nanney 14-72, Uzziah Beggs 6-33, Ryan Holderfield 6-18, Dalton Wilson 2-5, Medrano 2-4.

PASSING -- Jefferson, Austin Graves 2-2-38-0; Chaffee, Tenkhoff 15-29-215-0, Brennan Miller 1-1-14-0.

RECEIVING -- Jefferson, Mobley 1-20, Andrew Graves 1-18; Chaffee, Medrano 4-68, Wilson 2-43, Beggs 2-38, Nanney 4-37, Jaxon Van Pelt 1-22, Miller 3-21.