No. 1 St. Teresa Bulldogs shut-out No. 16 Jackets, 49-0
By Jim Beers, Contributing Writer
CHESTER — Saturday October 29 was the first round of the 2022 IHSA Class 2A State Football Playoffs for the Chester YellowJackets. Unfortunately it was also the one and only round for the Jackets as they faced the Decatur St. Teresa Bulldogs.
These Chester High School senior football players competed in their final game as YellowJacket players Saturday October 29 in the first round of the 2022 IHSA Class 1A State Football Playoffs. The No. 16 Jackets fought hard but fell to the No. 1 Decatur St. Teresa Bulldogs 49-0. Coach Billy Belton notes that these six seniors have set good examples for the under classmen, provided great leadership, worked hard and helped their team come a long way this season! Pictured (left to right) are Branden Whitley, Koby Jany, Will Schuwerk, Trace Fricke, Shane Bicket, and Matt James. Jim Beers Photo
The 9-0 Bulldogs were the No. 1 seed in the bracket and the 5-4 YellowJackets were the No. 16 seed. It was a tough assignment for Chester and Coach Billy Belton knew it would be a difficult game.
Belton said, “They were fast and hard to catch all day long. Their speed allowed them to get out to a quick, early lead and stay there. Our boys fought hard, but it wasn’t in the cards against St. Teresa who came into the game undefeated.”
The Bulldogs accumulated a total of 477 points throughout the 2022 season, including the game against Chester and they only allowed opponents a total of 53 points in 10-games. The Jackets were the fourth team to be shut out by the Bulldogs and two-of-the-four were beaten by more points than Chester.
St. Teresa’s 10-game season, to date, unfolded as such. In order, this is the schedule of victims that fell to the Bulldogs including Effingham (18-0), ACHS Belleville (54-0), Central A&M Moweaqua (62-7), Meridian (62-0), Clinton (49-7), SOVB Co-Op Sullivan (63-12), Tuscola (38-7), Shelbyville (43-14), WLHS Warrensburg (53-6), and CHESTER (49-0).
As can be seen, only six of the 10 teams that competed against St. Teresa even scored against then. Of those, WLHS scored only 6 points, Central A&M, Clinton, and Tuscola just scored 7 points, SOVB scored 12, and Shelbyville scored 14.
Just four teams allowed fewer points than Chester did, including Effingham (18), Tuscola (38), Shelbyville (43) and Central A&M (48). Chester and Clinton allowed 49 apiece. Then, WLHS Warrensburg (53), ACHS Belleville (54), Meridian Macon (62), and SOVB Sullivan (63) allowed more points than Chester did.
The above statistics might add a bit of perspective to Chester’s loss! The Decatur St. Teresa Bulldogs were undoubtedly a most formidable opponent! In addition to those factors, the Jackets had to travel three-and-a- half hours for the second week in-a-row to face the No. 1 seed in their portion of the bracket!
Kick-off was 3:00 P.M. The Bulldogs struck in the first quarter with a 28-yard touchdown pass from St. Teresa. The extra point kick was good and the Bulldogs led, 7-0 early. Later in the first period the Dogs scored a second time on a 3-yard run. The kick was good and Decatur led 14-0 after one quarter of play.
In the second quarter, St. Teresa’s Jaccarion Jones scored Decatur’s third touchdown on a 3-yard run. The kick was good and the Bulldogs led, 21-0. Before the halftime break, St. Teresa scored a fourth touchdown on a 26-yard run. The extra point kick was successful and the Bulldogs took a 28 point lead into the locker room at halftime.
The second half produced another Decatur touchdown on a Jaccarion Jones 33-yard run. For the fifth time in the game, the Bulldogs kicked another successful extra point to extend their lead to 35-0.
Before the third quarter buzzer sounded, St. Teresa quarterback Joe Brummer threw his second touchdown pass of the game. This time it was an 8-yard pass to extend the Dog’s lead to 41-0. The successful extra-point kick made the score, St. Teresa 42-Chester 0 at the end of three quarters of battle.
Down the final stretch, the Bulldogs scored one final touchdown on a 7-yard run. The extra point kick was good and St. Teresa ended the game with a 49-0 first round win.
In the game, St. Teresa ran 54 plays compared to Chester’s 47 plays. The Bulldogs accumulated a total of 409 yards compared to Chester’s 72 yards. St. Teresa had 137 passing yards and 272 yards on the ground. Chester recorded 38 passing yards and just 34 rushing yards.
St. Teresa had 21 first downs while Chester only recorded 6 first downs. On third down, Decatur was 2-of-5 (40%) and Chester was 4-of-14 (31%). The game was played rather clean with 3 penalties for the YellowJackets for 15 yards and 5 penalties for St. Teresa for 39 yards.
There were just 2 turnovers for Chester, 1 fumble and 1 interception and St. Teresa had 1 turnover, an interception.
Chester’s Zain Al-Jassim returned to action after healing from his injury a week ago. Against St. Teresa Al-Jassim completed 7-of-14 passes (50%) for a total of 38 yards. He had 1 interception. St. Teresa quarterback Joe Brummer completed 11-of-13 passes (84.6%) for a total of 137 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception.
The Jackets could only muster-up 34 yards on the ground against a very tough Bulldog defense. Shane Bicket, who is typically a lineman, was Chester’s best rusher in the game with 4 runs for 18 yards. Will Schuwerk ran 4 times for 12 yards. Matt James, another lineman, ran once for six yards and Aidan Runge had 2 carries for 6 yards.
Jaccarion Jones was St. Teresa’s work horse with 8 runs for 75 yards and two touchdowns. As a team the Bulldogs had a total of 272 yards.
The Jackets, who typically survive and excel in their air attack, had only seven receptions for a total of 38 yards in the first round loss. Devante Palacio had 2 receptions for 21 yards and Gage Hopkins recorded 3 receptions for a total of 14 yards.
The Bulldogs recorded 137 yards in the air led by M. Brummer who had 3 receptions for 46 yards. # 20 had 4 receptions for 35 yards and M. Pokrzywinski recorded 1 reception for 32 yards.
On defense the Jackets struggled a bit facing the vicious Bulldog offensive attacks. CHS recorded a total of 25 solo tackles led by Nate Heuer who had 5 solo tackles, 3 tackle assists, 1 quarterback sack and 2 tackles for a loss. Aidan Runge recorded 2 solo tackles,3 tackle assists and 1 tackle for a loss.
Matt James recorded 2 solos and 1 assist, and Gage Hopkins added 4 solo tackles and 5 assists. Trentin Eggemeyer added 2 solos and 3 assists. Braxton Conder added 1 solo tackle. Branden Whitley had 1 solo and 1 tackle assist. Sophomore Cayden Brunkhorst had Chester’s only interception.
With the loss the YellowJackets were eliminated from the 2022 IHSA Class 2A State Football Playoffs, losing 49-0 to the No. 1 seed St. Teresa. The Jackets finish the season with a record of 5-5 and the Bulldogs improve to 10-0 to advance to the second round to face No. 9 Athens (8-2).
Coach Billy Belton said, “I am very proud of this team! These boys had a great season, especially considering they started the season with 3 losses and then put together a 5-game win streak.”
“These seniors won only 1 game as freshmen and faced a very disjointed sophomore season due to COVID. Last year and this year they have stepped up and provided great leadership and hard work to get where they are today!”
“This team has come a long way! I am very proud of how they have battled and accomplished all that they have the past year. The last two weeks we added seniors Shane Bicket, Matt James and Branden Whitley to our running game to try to shake things up a bit and Bicket had some great runs to add to our offensive efforts.”
“We will now take a break before hitting the weight room for our off-season program. As soon as we get all of the end-of-the-year statistics together and secure a date for our end-of-the-season awards night I will announce 2022 award recipients.”