Chester win over game Webutuck doesn't impress coach Stover

AMENIA, N.Y. — Chester football coach Ron Stover stood at midfield after the game and lambasted his team's performance in the season opener against Webutuck Saturday afternoon. "It was a terrible effort," said Stover. "I give that team credit. They came to play today and we didn't. Mike Schmidlein played fine. Everyone else was terrible." By the way, Stover's team was on the positive end of a 30-0 triumph, as Schmidlein ran for 155 yards and three scores. But just as frustrating as Stover's tone, the Warriors made Chester feel. In fact, the two-time defending class D champs needed to use a fake punt and onside kick to pull away from a game Webutuck. "I felt good about that," said Webutuck football coach Doug Winslow. "They are a championship football team and we had them going early." After Chester ran eight minutes off the clock on the game's first drive, they knew Webutuck wouldn't roll over. A sack by Rielly Malloy and a forced fumble by Cody Cafiero spurned the drive, giving Webutuck its first chance at the Hambletonians. But a botched snap on a punt gave Chester a first down on Webutuck's 16-yard line. Three plays later Chester held a 6-0 advantage when Schmidlein found the end zone. Following the score, Chester went into panic mode and recovered an onside kick. To make matters worse, Malloy was hurt on the play and didn't return. Chester controlled the clock for the rest of the period, and Dave Malec finished off the drive with an 11-yard burst across the goaline. Quarterback Bryan Vandermark added a two-point run, extending the lead to 14-0. The Warriors ran only three offensive plays in the first period. For the half, Webutuck ran 13 to Chester's 40. A 20-yard scamper by Tiere Spruill and a 16-yard throw and catch from Cafiero to Luke Smith put the Warriors in prime real estate to get off the schneid. But on his next attempt, Cafiero was picked off by Vandermark, ending the threat. "We need to execute better," said Cafiero. "I didn't think they expected us to be this good. If we did a few things better we could have won this one." Steve Lounsbury looked as if his open-field tackle on third down snuffed Chester's next drive, but Stover dipped into his bag of tricks again, running a fake punt that would be enough to keep the drive in motion. Soon, Schmidlein would be in for six more, as Chester took a 22-0 halftime lead following a two-point conversion from Vandermark to Ruddie Montalvo. Chester tacked on a late score, as they rolled to the win. "We looked awesome in our scrimmage and we came out here and gave this kind of effort today," added Stover. "It's horrible." How would he react if Chester actually lost?