CHESAPEAKE — Just when things were turning against Chesapeake, the Panthers spun things the other way.

Chesapeake jumped out to a 21-0 lead before Fairland rallied to within 21-12 just before the end of the half.

But the Panthers regained control in the second half and went on to post a 35-12 Ohio Valley Conference win Friday to claim their second straight win in the Joe Smith Memorial “Battle for the Helmet.”

“We got the lead and then we let them back in it. They got two touchdowns in three minutes,” said Panthers’ coach Phil Davis. “I was proud of them. (Fairland) had momentum going in at the half and we came out and turned that around.

“I think the experience (of previously close games) helped. We’ve been in some places where we didn’t quit playing. We didn’t quit playing and some better things happened to us.”

One of the reasons Chesapeake (3-5, 3-0) stayed unbeaten in the OVC was their ground game. The Panthers ran the ball 56 times for 304 yards led by Patrick Hintz with 102 yards rushing, Nate Jones with 82 yards, and Trey West 77.

Jones and West each scored twice.

“We ran at them. We felt like we had to. We felt like they were pretty good up front, but our guys stepped up and did a good job. It was a really physical ball game and our kids played pretty well with that, too. Everybody blocked and we played well defensively,” said Davis.

Fairland (3-5, 2-1) struggled with its running game, especially when leading rusher Chad Fisher left the game in the second quarter with a hip injury and didn’t return until the second half.

Dragons’ coach Dave Carroll bemoaned the team’s four turnovers including interceptions by the Panthers’ Jon Pinson and Austin McMaster.

“I said earlier in the week that penalties and turnovers would decide the game and they did,” said Carroll. “We felt we had a good game plan. We knew what they wanted to do and they knew what we wanted to do. It boiled down to we didn’t execute.”

Fairland finished with just 7 net yards rushing.

“We had some stuff working for us. You can do those things when the guys up front do the kind of stuff they were doing,” said Davis.

West ran one yard for the Panthers’ first score at the 4:30 mark of the first quarter and Jacob Wells kicked the point after.

Brandon Noble threw a 17-yard scoring pass to McMaster three minutes later and it was 13-0.

The lead went to 21-0 on a 5-yard touchdown run by West and McMaster’s conversion pass to Hintz.

But the Dragons scored on a 10-yard run by Jon Baise with 1:30 left in the half. After a Chesapeake fumble, the Dragons scored again on a 10-yard pass from Baise to Alec Warner to make it 21-12 just before the half.

The Dragons completed a 48-yard pass to Evan Maddox to start the second half, but the Panthers’ defense stiffened and Fairland didn’t threaten seriously again.

Chesapeake was able to put the game away as Jones scored twice in the fourth quarter on runs of 15 and 6 yards.

Fairland 0 12 0 0 = 12

Chesapeake 13 8 0 14 = 35

First Quarter

Ch — Trey West 1 run (Jacob Wells kick) 4:30

Ch — Austin McMaster 17 pass from Brandon Noble (kick failed) 1:24

Second Quarter

Ch — Trey West 5 run (Patrick Hintz pass from Austin McMaster) 3:07

Fa — Jon Baise 10 run (run failed) 1:30

Fa — Alec Warner 10 pass from Jon Baise (pass failed) 0:23

Fourth Quarter

Ch — Nate Jones 15 run (Jacob Wells kick) 8:14

Ch — Nate Jones 6 run (Jacob Wells kick) 3:13

Fa Ch

First downs 7 15

Rushes-yards 17-7 56-304

Passing yards 186 38

Total yards 193 342

Cmp-Att-Int 10-23-2 2-6-0

Fumbles-lost 3-2 2-2

Punts-average 3-25.7 1-37.0

Penalties-yards 4-35 5-50

Individual Leaders

RUSHING-Fairland: Chad Fisher 3-8, Tanner Sowards 2-12, Jon Baise 10-minus 17, Tyree Ceaser 2-4; Chesapeake: Trey West 12-77, Patrick Hintz 17-102, Dylan Nichols 9-46, Nate Jones 13-82, Austin McMaster 5-39.

PASSING-Fairland: Jon Baise 8-16-0 88, Chad Fisher 2-7-2 98; Chesapeake: Austin McMaster 1-4-0 21, Brandon Noble 1-2-0 17.

RECEIVING-Fairland: Jonathan Holbrook 3-31, Tanner Sowards 2-21, Alex Warner 1-10, Evan Maddox 4-142; Chesapeake: Austin McMaster 1-17, Dylan Nichols 1-21.