COMMERCE — Undeterred by a steady rain and a stiff westerly wind, the Commerce Tigers advanced to the second round of the Class 2A playoffs Friday night with a 26-12 victory over the Chelsea Green Dragons on Tiger Field.
Coach Willie Ng’s Tigers carry a 10-1 record into next Friday’s 7:30 p.m. playoff game with Morris on Tiger Field. Coach Larry Crenshaw’s Morris Eagles improved to 7-4 on the year with a 23-8 victory Friday night at Vian.
“It’s playoff time and I told our coaches going into this game ‘you do what gotcha there and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Ng said. “Now we put in a few new wrinkles and we will next week for Morris, but this time of year if you don’t have your fundamentals down, then you’re way behind.
“Regardless of the weather or the field conditions, you still have to go out and execute on offense and make sure you’re lined up correctly on defense,” Ng said. “Then all you do is just get after ‘em and that’s what we did tonight.”
Taking advantage of a 19-mile-per-hour westerly wind, the Tigers defense forced the Green Dragons to punt after a six-play opening possession.
Sophomore Davyd Hubler exposed Chelsea’s lack of a kicking game after his punt into the wind went 18 yards forward and then bounced backward to the original line of scrimmage at the Chelsea 41-yard line.
On the third play from scrimmage, senior running back Bryson Sullivan burst 29-yards up the middle for the first of four touchdown runs in the game. Tyler Maxville’s point-after kick gave the Tigers a 7-0 lead with 8:38 left in the first quarter.
Chelsea put together a 64-yard drive towards the endzone before the Commerce defense stepped up and stopped fullback Donavon McLeod at the 1-yard line on a fourth-and-goal call with 2:36 remaining in the opening quarter.
Averaging 9.9 yards per play, the Tigers consumed almost five minutes before once again Sullivan shredded the middle of the Green Dragon’s defense for a 20-yard TD gallop. Maxville’s PAT with 9:48 until halftime gave Commerce a 14-0 cushion.
Sullivan carried the ball seven times for 71 yards during the drive.
With time and the steady rain winding down in the first half, Commerce senior defensive back Luis Arizpe broke through the line on an attempted punt by Hubler.
The ball stuck in Arizpe’s stomach right off Hubler’s foot and the 5-10, 175-pound defender raced 17 yards for a touchdown.
Maxville’s extra point into the wind was off with 1:26 showing on the clock and the Tigers built a 20-0 margin at half.
“We had to change our game plan quite a bit for this game because Chelsea had been 2-1 since going to the wishbone,” coach Ng said. “Coach (Chris) Cawyer installed a defense he had been using for years and the end result was we took away their running game.”
During the first three quarters, the Green Dragons were limited to just 75 yards on the ground and 25 yards via the pass.
“Early on with the weather so bad we knew we couldn’t throw the football,” coach Ng said. “So we ran right at them and that allowed us a chance to throw the football when we needed to and we were quite effective with that.”
The Green Dragons finally got on the scoreboard after forcing Commerce to punt on the first series of the third quarter.
Kick return specialist Lonnie Tharp took a 26-yard punt by Commerce’s Kasey Ng and eluded several tackles during a 62-yard touchdown return.
The two-point conversion run by McLeod was stuffed as the Tigers maintained a 20-6 lead with 8:16 remaining in the third quarter.
Mounting another methodical, sustained drive, Commerce covered 68 yards in 12 plays with Sullivan scoring on a 21-yard TD run.
A mishandled snap forced the conversion attempt to fail with 2:05 left in the third quarter as the Tigers held a 26-6 lead.
An indication of the success of the Commerce offense was the fact that Chelsea did not run an offensive play in the third quarter until there was only 1:57 left on the clock.
Chelsea inserted Tharp at quarterback and the 5-10, 165-pound junior marched the Green Dragons 59 yards in eight plays before tailback Tyler Akee scored on a 24-yard run around left end. The two-point conversion run failed as Chelsea trailed 26-12 with 8:36 remaining in the game.
Tharp provided the key play of the drive with a 22-yard run on a 4th-and-6 call.
Kasey Ng found wide out Braden Smith open on a 26-yard pass play as Commerce marched 50 yards in six plays for the final score. Sullivan bulled over from 2-yards out with 6:01 left in the game. The two-point conversion pass failed.
Commerce generated 322 yards in total offense as Sullivan rushed for 213 yards on 26 carries to lead the Tigers ground game.
Kasey Ng completed 3 of 3 passes for 84 yards while Sullivan misfired on a halfback option pass.
Braden Smith caught two passes for 43 yards and Sullivan added a 41-yard reception.
The Commerce defense limited Chelsea (6-5) to 160 total yards on 43 offensive plays.
The game in figures
Chelsea 0 0 6 6 — 12
Commerce 7 13 6 6 — 32
First quarter
Commerce — Sullivan 29 run (Maxville kick), 8:38
Second quarter
Commerce — Sullivan 20 run (Maxville kick), 9:48
Commerce — Arizpe 17 blocked punt return (kick failed), 1:26
Third quarter
Chelsea — Tharp 62 punt return (run failed), 8:16
Commerce — Sullivan 21 run (run failed), 2:05
Fourth quarter
Chelsea — Tyler Akee 24 run (run failed), 8:36
Commerce — Sullivan 2 run (pass failed), 6:01
Team statistics
Chel Comm
First downs 6 16
Rushes-yards 40-135 40-238
Passing yards 25 84
Return yards 62 17
Comp-att-int 2-3-0 3-4-0
Punts-avg 2-0.5 2-22.5
Fumbles-lost 1-0 3-1
Penalties-yards 6-54 8-58
Individual statistics
RUSHING: Chelsea, Tharp 3-60, Tyler Akee 6-33, Yorkman 7-20, Hubler 4-17, McLeod 10-10, The all 2-1, James 2-0, Gill 4-(-3), Captain 2-(-3); Commerce, Sullivan 26-213, McMain 4-15, Watkins 3-10, Smith 1-9, Arizpe 1-(-3), Kasey Ng 5-(-6).
PASSING: Chelsea, The all 2-2-0-25, Tharp 0-1-0-0; Commerce, Kasey Ng 3-3-0-84, Sullivan 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING: Chelsea, Tharp 2-25; Commerce, Smith 2-43, Sullivan 1-41.
