The "Wall's" Peninsula Game of the Week #2 - Woodside 28, Bethel 13

HAMPTON – The wear and tear of playing two games in five days caught up to the Bethel Bruins midway through yesterday’s game against Woodside. The Bruins took a 13-7 lead into the half, but ran into a Woodside buzz saw in the third quarter. Fatigue took over, allowing the visitors to score 21 unanswered points in the third quarter and storm to a 28-13 win at Darling Stadium.

With the win, Woodside (4-2, 4-1 Peninsula District) moved into sole possession of third place in the district.

Ironically, it wasn’t the offense that eventually overcame the Bruins. In fact, the  Wolverines, who came into Saturday averaging 355 yards and almost 36 points a game, were held to 222 yards and only two offensive touchdowns.

The fly in the Bruins’ ointment turned out to come in the form of D’Angelo Chesson, who scored two defensive touchdowns – the first on a 29-yard interception return , and second on a 32-yard fumble recovery. Chesson also had another interception in the game, to claim three of Bethel’s five turnovers.

The game was labeled as a matchup of the powerful Woodside offense against the stingy Bethel defense (94.8 yards allowed per game entering Saturday). Woodside struck first as quarterback Tyhier Tyler faked a handoff from the Bruin 10 and swept left for a touchdown.

Chesson stopped a Bruin mini-drive, picking off  Lekendrell Lowther’s pass. Woodside failed to capitalize, and it was soon after that the Bethel defense briefly took charge, holding the high-powered Wolverine offense to minus 18 yards on two successive possessions.

Eventually, the Bethel offense kicked into gear, although it took a 67-yard punt return by T.J. Chisley to set up the first Bruin score – a 1-yard plunge from Lowther. Just before halftime, Woodside failed to convert a fourth-and-3 from the Bruin 42, setting Bethel up nicely with just over two minutes left in the half. Lowther found Jeremiah Owusu for a key 29-yard gain, which led to first-and goal from the 2, where Janaz Jordan bulled into the end zone for Bethel’s second score.

But it wasn’t enough to hold Woodside down. After Chesson’s two scores broke the game into Woodside’s favor, the Wolverines found their stride. After an interception by William Daughtrey, Tyler laid down the final blow, catching the Bruin defense off guard and finding Tamir Walker on a 50-yard bomb, which made for the game’s final score.

The Wolverines held Bethel (3-4, 3-3 Peninsula) to seven first downs and 134 yards of total offense.

WOODSIDE – 7, 0, 21, 0 -- 28

BETHEL  -       0, 13, 0, 0 -- 13

First quarter

W – T. Tyler 10 run (Mitchel kick) 5:30

Second quarter

B – Lowther 1 run (Vassilakopoulos kick)

B – J. Jordan 2 run (kick failed)

Third quarter

W – Chesson 29 int. return (Mitchel kick)

W – Chesson 32 fumble return (Mitchel kick)

W – T. Walker 50 pass from T. Tyler (Mitchel kick)

                    Wood   Beth

First downs;    9, 7

Rushes-yards;  36-140, 36-85

Passing yards;   82, 49

Comp-att-int;   4-8-0, 6-13-3

Penalties-yards; 4-40, 10-85

Punts-avg;      3-31, 3-32

Fumbles-lost;   1-0, 3-3