It took longer than Chandler head coach Ty Wisdom expected, but the Wolves eventually pulled away from a competitive first half to beat Salpointe Catholic 42-10 on the road Friday night. Wisdom told his players he didn’t do enough to prepare them for the beginning of the game but the Lancer defense also had a say early on.

“I just put it on me, I didn't have our offense ready to go,” Wisdom said. “A bad job of preparing them, they're high school kids and we just didn't show up ready to go and that's on me.”

The Wolves (2-1) operate under a non-huddle offense but a fumble early on gave the Lancers (2-1) the ball with 10:09 left in the opening quarter. The Lancers were driving near midfield but a strip sack from Jayden Arnold led to a 46-yard return from Cau'Re Smith to put Chandler up 7-0. Another fumble put Salpointe back in business with 3:06 left in the first but a series of punts pinned the Wolves back on their own two yard-line with 58.4 seconds left in the first.

The Lancer defense forced a fourth down from the seven but the Wolves elected to try a fake punt, only to have Ilijah Kee come up big with a tackle to give the Lancers a first down at the Chandler eight but the team was unable to move the ball and Troy Kuhlman cut the lead won to 7-3 on a field goal with 11:02 left in the half.

“I think that's probably one of one of the best football teams we'll see all year,” Salpointe head coach Pat Ryden said on his team’s ability to stop Chandler on defense early but the inability to move the ball on them. “They were so big up front. We knew we were going to have a hard time running the ball against them. Their front seven is amazing and big strong kids and they have some linebackers that fly all over the place, and so you know there were some things there that we missed.”

The rest of the first half featured more traded punts until Will Mencl ran the ball in from seven yards out to put the Wolves up 14-3 with 1:36 left in the half. Jai Jones came up big on the next drive with an interception to give Chandler the ball back with 1:14 left. It looked like the Wolves would put the game away in the first half but Jeremiah Wells came up with an interception to end another Chandler drive.

Jones finished the game with almost 200 yards receiving on only nine receptions to go along with his interception and he pulled in a deep pass to put the Wolves back in scoring position after the Chandler defense stopped Salpointe to open the second half.

Mencl hit Jackson Colter from 22 yards out to put Chandler up 21-3 with 9:50 left in the third and that’s when the Wolves started to pull away with the Lancer defense extended to its limits and the Lancer offense unable to move the ball.

“I just really like how our defense played,” Wisdom added. “I mean, we tackled very well, and you see us swarming the ball and doing it. I really like how they're playing, and they'll continue to get better.”

Chandler forced another put and Jones caught a 24-yard pass to put Chandler up 28-3 with 4:18 left in the third. Another defensive stop by the Wolves led to a 25-yard TD pass to Jones again to make the score 35-3 with 11:36 left in the game.

Another punt led to a seven-yard touchdown from David Douglas to put the Wolves up 42-3 with 8:36 left. Yashaya Henry broke up the middle for Salpointe for 68 yards to cut the lead down to 42-10.

“Right now, we’ve got five guys that'll be eligible week six so I like where this team's at from a physical standpoint,” Wisdom said on where his team goes from here. “We’ve got to keep growing on the mental age side of it, we'll just keep hammering away, but we’ve got to learn to grow on some aspects if we want to be there at the end, which I think we have the team that can compete to do it.”

Ryden will focus his team on Sandra Day O'Connor (2-1) with 6A Southern Region games on the horizon. The Lancers will host Highland (1-2) on Sept. 25 and then four of their last fives game will be on the road. Salpointe made it to the 6A semifinal round last year.

Wisdom led the Wolves to the Open Division championship game last year after he led Millard South (Omaha) to a state championship in Nebraska. Chandler lost to Basha 34-7 in that championship game and the team lost to Basha 37-26 to open up the season this year.

Chandler will host American Leadership Academy – Queen Creek (1-2) next week