Scott City holds off Chaffee 23-21

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- It may not be the best of times for Scott City and Chaffee football, but Friday's contest between the two teams should leave both with their heads held high.

Scott City (2-3) ran its win streak against the Red Devils to 17 games with a 23-21 victory at Chaffee High School.

Scott City coach Stephen O'Brien summed up the game against arch-rival Chaffee in one word, "Wow!"

"It was a hard fought game. I'm extremely proud of our guys and I'm extremely proud of their guys, too, because neither team ever quit."

Scott City escaped with the win after seeing Chaffee (1-4) score in the final minute, recover an on-side kick and botch a 29-yard field goal in the closing seconds.

The Rams got on the board first on tailback Brad Glenn's 5-yard touchdown run, followed by Andrew Estes' extra-point kick to take a 7-0 lead with 4:28 left in the first quarter.

Chaffee mounted a nine-play drive starting at midfield about midway through the second quarter. Quarterback Derrick Uhrhan finished off the drive with a sneak from a foot out. Brandon Davis kicked the point-after to tie the game at 7-7 to the delight of a large homecoming crowd.

But Glenn quieted the crowd as he ran the opening kick of the second half back 88 yards for a touchdown to send the Rams back up 13-7.

Estes booted a 25-yard field goal with 2:41 left in the third period to pad the Rams' lead at 16-7.

The Red Devils weren't about to fold as they came back with a sustained drive to pound the ball into the end zone on Jeremy Hahn's 3-yard scamper untouched around left end to close the gap to 16-14.

Trying to get the go-ahead points in the fourth quarter, Chaffee botched the snap on a 21-yard field-goal attempt, and Scott City put together a drive that appeared to put the clinching points on the board.

Quarterback Jeremy Glastetter sneaked over from the 3-yard line with 1:10 left in the game to send the Rams up 23-14.

But Chaffee still had something to say about the outcome, as they scored on a 40-yard pass play from Urhahn to Davis to close to 23-21with 39 seconds left.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Red Devils recovered the onside kick at the Ram 46-yard line and hope was alive. They moved the ball to the Scott City 12-yard line and set up for another field-goal try. But again, the snap was mishandled.

Scott City took over on downs and ran off the last ticks on the clock for the win.

"We never quit," said Chaffee coach Allan Horrell. "That's what we preached all week, keep coming back, keep coming back and maybe the shoe will fall on the right foot, but it just didn't tonight."

For the Rams, Glenn had another stellar evening, with 155 yards on 28 carries. Estes tacked on another 45 yards on nine carries and was a rock on defense with nine unassisted tackles and two assisted.

Estes has 61 tackles so far, on pace to crack the Scott City all-time tackle record of 126.