Bears dominate Lakeshore, Chapman ties school record
STEVENSVILLE — Dylan Chapman and St. Joseph ran away with Friday's rivalry football game against Lakeshore.
The Bears defeated the Lancers 46-7 behind a huge night from Chapman, who rushed 26 times for 292 yards and six touchdowns in the Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference West Division win.
"He's pretty good," St. Joseph coach Andrew Pratley said of Chapman. "He's got a great offensive line, but he made a lot of great plays, made a lot of good cuts with his foot on the ground. It was awesome. He had a great, great game, memorable one."
Chapman's six rushing touchdowns tied a school record set by Drake Smith in 2008.
"Lakeshore's been our rivals forever, so it feels really good," Chapman said. "All the credit goes to my offensive line. Without them I couldn't do any of this."
St. Joseph (1-0 SMAC West, 5-0), ranked No. 4 in Division 3, scored three times in the first quarter on tosses to the left to Chapman for gains of 18, 61 and 63 yards. Two of them came on fourth-down plays.
"He got outside and we didn't come up fast enough," Lakeshore coach Danny Thompson said. "You give the edge to that kid and he runs a long way. And then we had way too many turnovers on offense. You turn over the ball to a good team, bad things happen."
Chapman also had a 35-yard scoring run and a pair of two-yard touchdown plunges. His last scoring run made it 38-0, putting the running clock mercy rule into effect early in the third quarter.
Lakeshore (0-2, 0-5) moved the ball well at times, but didn't reach the end zone until Dylan Moore's three-yard run in the fourth quarter. Moore finished with 66 yards rushing. Quarterback Landon Hall threw for 149 yards, but had three passes intercepted. Isaac Codde picked off a pass on the opening drive, Nate Schmitt had one late in the first quarter, and Maguire Lange added a second-half pick.
Lange and regular starting quarterback Davis Crossman missed the first half to due to what Pratley called a "team issue". Sophomore Hudson Corning started at quarterback, finishing with 30 yards rushing and 13 passing.
"We had some adversity issues that we had to fight through," Pratley said. "Just a team issue, and it was great for our young guys to step up. Obviously Dylan carried the load a little bit, and our offensive and defensive lines dominated the line of scrimmage."
Crossman threw for 94 yards and a touchdown, all on one drive. Bobby DeLong and Jace Hopkins each had half the receiving yards on that series. DeLong caught a 47-yard pass to get across midfield, and Hopkins followed a 40-yard reception with a seven-yard score on a shovel pass, making it 46-0.
St. Joseph's performance wasn't entirely flawless. The Bears were just 2-for-7 on two-point conversions, and Lakeshore's Caleb Steinke and Will Caldwell each intercepted passes.
Both teams have home games next Friday. St. Joseph welcomes in Portage Northern for a key SMAC West battle, while Lakeshore hosts Mattawan.
Photo and story from Herald Palladium
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