Historic Season For Chester Comes to Ends With Loss to Springfield In District Championship

Tagged under: District 1, News, pfn, Playoffs

Willie McGonigle | November 22, 2025

SPRINGFIELD: Entering the 2025 the expectations were high for the Chester Clippers and through the first 13 weeks of the season the Clippers lived up them, completing the first undefeated 10-0 regular season in school history and continued their winning ways into the District One 5A playoffs where they rolled up three more victories to set the stage for the District 1 5A Championship against fellow undefeated and the top seeded Springfield Cougars. Unfortunately for the Clippers, their first defeat ended their season as they fell to the Cougars 34-12 in front of a sellout crowd at Springfield High School.

“Expectation was high for us this year. We had a great season, we just have to find a way to get it done in the end.” Clippers Coach Dennis Shaw said.

The Clippers won the yardage, edging the Cougars 309-306, but the Clippers were done in by two turnovers and 11 penalties that resulted in 96 yards and negated several big plays.

“Hats off to Springfield, they had a good game plan defensively, keeping everything in front of them,” Shaw said adding, “They are well-coached; they were the better team. We had some timely penalties that killed us, not to take anything away from Springfield, and you can’t win a championship with 11 penalties.

Things got off to a rocky start for the Clippers as on the opening kickoff they were flagged for a personal foul, followed by on the games first play from scrimmage Jalen Harris was sacked for a 6-yard loss by Tanner Coll, but the Clippers responded and showed incredible poised facing a 4^th and 10 from their own 16 the Clippers took a gamble and went with a fake punt that worked with Darron Harris picking up 11 yards to keep the drive alive. Seven plays after the fake punt, the Clippers were bitten by the turnover bug when Finn Delaney stepped in front and intercepted Jalen Harris, giving the Cougars the ball at midfield.

The Cougars came out humming with John Hopkins connecting with TJ Valletti for an 18-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage, setting the tone for the Cougars to piece together eight play drive that was capped with a Luke Valerio two-yard touchdown run.

The Cougars’ defense continued to play fired up quickly, forcing the Clippers to punt, setting the stage for their offense to come back out and marched 45-yards on 11 plays before Valerio once again found the endzone, this time from a yard out.

The Clippers responded on their next drive, putting together a six-play 80-yard drive with almost all the damage coming from the Harris twins’ connection. The pair connected three times for 78 yards on the drive, including the 31-yard touchdown that came two plays after the duo connected for 21 21-yard score, only to have it wiped out by a holding call.

The Cougars countered right back with a 65-yard drive that saw the Cougars execute with great balance on their 10-play drive that was capped with an Hopkins to Shane Kilroy 8-yard touchdown, giving the Cougars the 20-7 lead heading into the locker room.

The Clippers’ defense came out and forced the Cougars to punt on their opening drive and then on their first possession on the second half put together seven play, 65-yard drive that was capped by Jalen Harris one-yard touchdown run, making it 20-13 after three quarters of play.

The Cougars started to pull away in the fourth quarter with Hopkins finding Kilroy for 17 17-yard touchdown that capped a 16 77-yard drive that put the Cougars up 27-12.

On their ensuing possession, the Clippers turned the ball over on downs, setting the stage for the Cougars to seal their victory with an eight-play 43-yard drive that was capped by a 5-yard touchdown run by Coll.

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