By Lori Brown
GRAHAMSVILLE — September 14, 2010 — The Tri-Valley Bears hosted their first home game of this football season on Saturday afternoon.
Prior to the game between T-V and the Chester Hambletonians there was a moment of silence in remembrance of those who lost their lives on 9-11-01.
The T-V pep band, which is instructed by Matthew Weyant played “The Star-Spangled Banner” to start off the activities on the beautiful, sunny afternoon.
When the game began, however, Chester took an early 8-0 lead and went on to record a 37-12 victory.
Both teams fumbled on their first possession and had trouble moving the ball on their second possessions.
With 17 seconds left in the first quarter T-V (0-2), tried to get on the scoreboard but a pass by quarterback Peter DiMilia was intercepted by Chester in the end zone.
Chester (2-0) quickly took advantage of the turnover as James Ognibene scored a touchdown with less than a minute into the second quarter. Quarterback Anthony Ognibene ran for the 2-point conversion to give the Hambletonians an 8-0 lead.
With 3:01 remaining before halftime, Anthony Ognibene threw a 5-yard TD pass to James Ognibene. The 2-point conversion was not successful, but Chester had a 14-0 advantage.
T-V gained some momentum when Jon Monforte recovered the a fumble at the Chester’s 37-yard line with about a minute to go in the quarter. But James Ognibene picked up a Bears’ fumble and ran 75 yards for his third touchdown of the game. Anthony Ognibene made a successful 2-point conversion run to increase Chester’s lead to 22-0 with 41 seconds left on the first half clock.
After holding the Hambletonians on their first drive of the third quarter, the Bears worked their way downfield to get on the scoreboard. DiMilia recorded T-V’s first touchdown on a 1-yard run with 5:12 remaining in the quarter. The 2-point conversion was no good, but T-V had cut the Chester lead to 22-6.
Chester answered on its subsequent possession as Matt March ran for a touchdown and James Ognibene caught the 2-point pass from Anthony Ognibene to make it a 30-6 game with 17 seconds to go in the quarter.
T-V’s Cody Exner returned the following kickoff 37 yards to give his team a first down near midfield.
Early in the fourth quarter, DiMilia had a big gain of 20 yards to keep the Bears’ drive going.  With 8:12 remaining, DiMilia threw a 5-yard touchdown pass pass to Greg Swarthout to close the Bears’ deficit to 30-12.
T-V recovered a fumble on the next Hambletonians’ possession. But the Bears fumbled the ball on the exchange between the center and quarterback a few plays later and Chester grabbed the ball.
Moments later, Saxon Smith ran for a 30-yard TD and Andrew Lakis made the extra-point kick to give the Hambletonians a 37-12 lead.
Smith intercepted a T-V pass with nine seconds left in the game.
“I thought we played a little sloppy in the first half,” Chester Coach Ron Stover said. “Defensively, we bent but didn’t break. Offensively, our line blocked better.
“We are going to continue to improve,” he added.
Travis Mann was the Hambletonians’ leading runner with 132 yards on 16 carries.
“Chester executed well and we made way too many mistakes,” T-V Coach John Rusin said. “They had a halftime lead, but we played better in the second half. They beat us today.”
Rusin praised DiMilia, Joe Mickelson and Swarthout for playing well.
“They all give heart,” he said.
Brendan Tierney led the Bears’ offense with 15 carries for 82 yards, DiMilia ran 14 times for 80 yards and Mickelson had 13 carries for 74 yards.