The Pelahatchie Chiefs (3-1) chopped down the West Lincoln Bears (2-2) Friday night as they cruised to a 56-0 victory.

Facing off against a physically tough team, the Bears had a hard time keeping up with the Chiefs’ speedy rushing attack and soon found themselves fighting an uphill battle — one that the Bears couldn’t overcome.

“We ran into a really good team,” West Lincoln coach BJ Smithhart said. “Pelahatchie is a championship-caliber team. They played harder than we did, and that’s a recipe for disaster. That’s exactly what happened tonight. We’ve got to do a gut check and decide what we’re going to do. We’ve got to come out hard and play hard until the final whistle blows.”

The Chiefs’ opening drive didn’t go so well as they had back-to-back penalties that forced them to play way behind the sticks. The Bears’ defense forced the Chiefs to punt, something they would only do twice throughout the game.

West Lincoln’s first offensive drive didn’t fare that well, either, as the Bears ended up being unable to move the sticks and punted the ball away.

Pelahatchie‘s second offensive drive proved better than the first as the Chiefs opted to go to the passing game. Starting on their own 43-yard line, Pelahatchie made it to the 16-yard line before the Bears could get the tackle. One play later, the Chiefs found the end zone as Javeious Purvis ran the ball in for the game’s first touchdown. Making the point after, Pelahatchie took an early 7-0 lead.

The Chiefs found the end zone a few minutes later as they forced the Bears to punt and ran the ball all the way back for a 37-yard touchdown.

Pelahatchie once again made it into the end zone on a 15-yard pass. The Chiefs led 21-0 at the end of the first quarter.

West Lincoln’s offense continued to move slowly as they were unable to move the chains starting the second quarter.

The Chiefs scored twice before the Bears could get a shot at getting their offense going.

Trailing 35-0, the Bears offense showed sparks of life as they managed to pick up back to back first downs, but were unable to make it pass the 21-yard line as they turned the ball over on downs after failing to convert on fourth.

Pelahatchie would score once more before halftime, to go up 42-0.

The Chiefs struggled some on offense in the second half as snaps sailed over the backup quarterback’s head, but even that wasn’t enough to prevent Pelahatchie from continuing to score. 

Heading into the final frame, the Bears were down 49-0.

Determined to get some kind of offense going, West Lincoln stayed with the rushing attack and had some success even though they struggled to move the chains for a new set of downs.

With over two minutes left in the game, the Chiefs scored the game’s final touchdown as they converted on a fourth down.

At the final horn, Pelahatchie had blown out the Bears 56-0.

West Lincoln will be in action Friday for their homecoming game against Pisgah. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.

Story by Dave Linton