Chesterfield’s defense hammering down opponents

Brandon Williams has hammered plenty of ball carriers this season, but the Chesterfield senior middle linebacker still hasn’t gotten the one hammer he really wants.

Someone on his team wins an award each week for the biggest hit delivered in a game. Appropriately named the Hammer Award, the recipient gets to have in his possession, for one week, a real hammer. The handle resembles a football and Chesterfield Ram logo is emblazoned upon it.

Anyone on the team is eligible, whether it’s a defender leveling a runner or a lineman laying out an opponent with a pancake block.

“I’m still working on it,” Williams said. “Everybody shoots for that award.”

But the Rams (9-0, 5-0 Region 3-A), have bigger awards in mind, like winning a region title, which they can wrap up tonight against McBee, or maybe a third straight Class A Division I state championship.

There has been nothing this season to indicate that the Rams won’t have a better-than-good chance at reaching the title game for the fourth consecutive season. Their offense has been prolific, averaging 45 points per game.

Chesterfield’s defense, however, might be even more impressive. The Rams have not given up more than seven points in a game. That happened twice — once in the opener against Class 4A Fort Mill and the next week against Class 3A Lakewood.

After that, the Rams recorded five consecutive shutouts, gave up six points at Great Falls, then wiped out North Central 71-0 a week ago.

Chesterfield coach Steve Taneyhill is quick to point out that he realizes Region 3-A isn’t one of the stronger leagues this season. Other than McBee (8-1, 4-1), just one of the region’s seven teams has a winning record, and that’s 5-4 Buford.

But just in case no one was counting, that’s 20 points total in nine games the Rams have surrendered, or, on average, a little more than a safety per contest.
The secret is not really a secret, Taneyhill said. Any team could likely build at least a pretty good defense if five of its eight returning starters were all-state players.

That’s exactly what the Rams had coming into the season with Williams, defensive tackle Moon Edwards, linebacker David Ratliff, safety Josh McCall and defensive back Sergio Johnson.

“That’s the first reason they’re good is because you’ve got five all-state players back,” Taneyhill said. “You figure they ought to be a year stronger, better and faster.“

The Rams also have a luxury that many Class A teams do not have. Only two or three of Chesterfield’s defensive players also have to play on offense.

“That helps a lot,” said Williams, who leads the team with 99 tackles. “It’s nice if a team has a long drive, you don’t have to get right back out there and play offense. We stay fresh the whole game.”

It’s not only the fact that the Rams have enough players to go around, but Taneyhill said he and his coaches try to evaluate a player early on based on which one position they think will be best for him.

“We look at a kid and say, ’This guy’s a defensive player and that’s where he’s going to play,’” Taneyhill said. “I think we do a good job in the offseason of watching these guys work and know where they fit the best. It just makes those kids better. When we see these kids as freshmen, we just decide where we’re going to play them and get them better there.”

Taneyhill, well-known for his flamboyance when he played quarterback at South Carolina in the 1990s, admits to enjoying watching his defense play, but he’s still not ready to say he likes it more than coaching and watching the Rams’ offense fly up and down the field.

“No, I’m having fun,” he said. “We have a fast-striking offense and a fast-playing defense. That’s a good combination.”

But more often than not, it’s his defense that shows up more impressively on the practice field.

Each week, Taneyhill said the team ends its Wednesday practice with a simulated two-minute drill, starting offense against starting defense. Eight of nine weeks, the defense has won.

“We don’t see teams up to our caliber out there, so playing against our offense helps us on the field,” Williams said. “If another team isn’t as good as ours, we’re not going to play down to their level.”