Caldwell’s Dylan Schott (1) goes up for a layup as Fort Frye’s Caden Henniger (4) defends during Tuesday’s game in Beverly. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

BEVERLY — Five months ago the Beverly Lowell Post 389/750 American Legion baseball team captured a state championship with the majority of the roster consisting of Caldwell and Fort Frye players.

Tuesday evening many of those same players who won that title together did battle against one another as the undefeated Cadets hosted the also unbeaten Redskins on Dan Liedtke Court.

Paced by 19 points from senior Dylan Schott, the Redskins remained perfect as they downed the Cadets 47-32.

The Redskins broke open a close game in the second half, outscoring the Cadets by identical 13-7 margins in both the third and fourth quarters to improve to 8-0.

“We are fortunate to not have a kid on our team who is a minus defender and we just apply constant pressure throughout the game and I think that just kind of wears down people,” said Caldwell coach Clint Crane explaining his teams success. “We played very physical and this is a very tough place to come in and get a win so it’s a good one for us.”

The two teams swapped the lead back and forth throughout the early part of the game with Caldwell taking a 12-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.

A 3-pointer by Cadet senior Aiden Brooks opened the second quarter before Caldwell’s Kyler Starr and Fort Frye’s Kainan Bradford traded buckets to leave the Cadets in front by a point.

Brooks connected once again from behind the arc to give Fort Frye a four-point lead before the Redskins rallied to close out the half.

A 3-pointer by Starr closed the Cadet lead to one before Guiler Preston and Schott closed out the first half with field goals to send the visitors to the break with a 21-18 lead.

The Redskins got a bucket by Brayden Erb to open the second half but a free throw by Bradford and two freebies by Brooks closed the lead to 23-21.

Caldwell got a huge spark off of the bench from junior Izic Cool, who immediately made his presence felt by forcing a handful of Cadet turnovers before coming to life offensively as well.

Cool entered the third quarter without a single point but scored six points on a 9-0 Caldwell run that put them in front by 11.

A Cool basket off of an assist from Erb got the run going before Schott knocked down one of three triples he would make in the game.

Schott assisted Cool’s next bucket before Cool came up with a steal and basket in transition to extend the Redskin lead to 32-21.

The Cadets briefly slowed the Redskins’ momentum when Terry Tompkins scored a put-back basket, but Dalton Egnot answered by making a pair of free throws.

Brooks cut the deficit under double-digits heading to the final quarter by grabbing a rebound of his own missed shot and laying back up and in.

The Cadets could not afford to get any further behind the Redskins, but they did so in a hurry to begin the fourth quarter as Schott assisted Cool on back-to-back buckets to increase the lead to 13.

After Bradford’s bucket with six minutes to play briefly stopped the bleeding, Cool drilled a three-pointer off of yet another assist from Schott.

Crane was quite pleased with the play of his bench led by Cool.

“Izik (Cool) is a great athlete and he just changes the game when he comes in with his energy,” said Crane. “He’s a great defender, he rebounds and sometimes we get better when we go to our bench and tonight we definitely got better.”

The Cadets, who came into the game already without the services of their leading scorer Chatum Courson, who had a season-ending back injury last week, sustained yet another big blow midway through the final quarter when Brooks suffered an apparent knee injury.

“Losing our top two scorers is tough and hopefully Aiden (Brooks) will get some good news on his knee tonight,” said Fort Frye head coach Eric Henniger. “We are just going to have to find some other guys to step up a little bit because it’s a long season.”

Three late field goals late in the fourth quarter by Schott escalated the Redskin lead to 15 in a game that was much closer than the final score indicated.

In addition to his game-high 19 points, Schott also pulled down a team-high nine rebounds while dishing out four assists.

“He’s (Schott) a really good, experienced player and that’s the kind of kid you want in those kind of situations,” said Crane of Schott. “He didn’t shoot as well as he can tonight but he really turned it on in the second half and did a nice job.”

Cool chipped in with 13 points on a perfect 6-for-6 shooting performance from the floor while also coming up with six steals and four rebounds.

The Cadets were led by Brooks with 10 points before his exit and Bradford who came up one point short of a double-double as he finished with nine points and 11 rebounds.

Dealing with their first loss of the season and with likely a few voids in their lineup going forward due to injuries, the Cadets (6-1) will have to regroup, beginning with Friday night’s game at Parkersburg Catholic.

“Caldwell is a really good team and they kind of got us out of what we wanted to do in the second half,” said Henniger. “We will just go look at the film and get things figured out and keep working.”

Crane thought it was a unique situation for the former teammates to do battle with one another after achieving so much together over the summer.

“These kids are really good friends but they are also competitive,” said Crane. “They step between the lines and they really go at it and kind of leave that friendship behind but when the game is over it’s back to normal.”

Caldwell will look to make it nine in a row Saturday when they host Meadowbrook.