Correspondent photo / Michael G. Taylor Chaney’s Jahkir Davis (14) makes the tackle on Struther’s CJ Harmon during a game on Friday at Rayen Stadium in Youngstown.

YOUNGSTOWN — Chaney recovered from an early deficit to earn its first win of the season, defeating Struthers 27-12 on Friday at Rayen Stadium.

The Cowboys surrendered a touchdown on the first drive of the game and committed errors at inopportune moments, but each time, they recovered and redeemed themselves with explosive plays to improve to 1-1.

“We played hard. We played four quarters, which we didn’t do last week,” Chaney coach Seth Antram said. “There’s some things we gotta clean up on both sides and special teams, but I’m happy for these guys. They deserved a win, and it was nice to do it in front of our home crowd.”

Struthers struck first on Friday.

After starting their first possession from their own 45-yard line, the Wildcats methodically made their way down the field, getting exactly what they needed when they needed it.

Facing a third-and-6, they rushed for 7 yards before passing for 9 yards on a fourth-and-7 situation, effectively negating a penalty that put them behind the chains.

As the finale of the 12-play, over seven-minute drive, Tyler Cole powered through a group of defenders and over the goal line with a 1-yard touchdown. The extra point was blocked, keeping Struthers ahead 6-0.

Chaney, on its first possession, started with better field position than Struthers, and much like the Wildcats, the Cowboys began well enough until a high snap resulted in a 20-yard loss and a second-and-35.

On third-and-30, with a punt looking likely, Chaney quarterback Asusante Mickel took a shot, going deep to 6-foot-5 Allen Hill Jr., who skied above three defenders to pull down the pass for a 47-yard touchdown reception. Eder Gomez’ successful PAT gave the Cowboys the 7-6 lead with 2:21 to go in the first quarter.

Following a Struthers three-and-out, Chaney put together a drive much like Struthers’ first, taking 10 plays in total. The most explosive play proved to be a 30-yard run by Dewayne Thompson Jr., who was spotted out just short of the goal line while stretching for the pylon.

Establishing a trend, though, Chaney took a 16-yard loss on the next play due to another high snap.

Undeterred, Mickel rushed for 10 yards, and Thompson made it the rest of the way on the next play to go ahead 14-6 with the extra point.

After three-and-outs for both teams, Struthers began to drive down the field again.

On the 11th play of the possession, however, after Ashton Pascarella completed an 11-yard pass to bring up first-and-goal and a timeout, Chaney’s Tizzel White timed a comeback route perfectly and picked Pascarella’s pass off in stride and raced down the sideline before being pushed out of bounds with 30 seconds to go before half.

The Cowboys began the second half with a three-and-out, but moments later, took advantage of another Struthers mistake.

Pascarella severely underthrew a ball, allowing Mickel to position himself under it for the second interception of the game.

Four plays later, Mickel tossed a screen pass to Todd White, who did the rest of the work, flying down the right side of the field and into the end zone. The subsequent PAT failed.

On the following drive, Struthers again committed an error that gave Chaney the opportunity to add to its lead.

Facing third-and-7, Cole broke through the first line of defense and rushed for what would have been a first down, but a Chaney defender’s helmet found the ball in Cole’s arms, popping it out and allowing Allex Hill to recover.

Five plays later, Chaney proved again why turnovers can be costly, as Mickel went deep to Allen Hill Jr., who leaped and overpowered his defender to haul in the 37-yard touchdown pass.

“We’ve been stressing turnovers,” Antram said. “We finally got our turnover chain, it came in the other day. And it was nice to get it and use it the first day.”

While Struthers went on another long drive and ultimately scored, even recovering the onside kick afterward, time was not on its side. Eventually, time officially ran out on the Wildcats, who slipped to 0-2 with the loss.

“We fought,” Struthers head coach John Pascarella said. “We’re young. We’re still learning how to play varsity football. Proud of the way our kids finished, but there’s a lot of little things we need to fix — missed tackles, assignments offensively, defensively. So got to get back at it tomorrow morning.”

Struthers hosts West Branch next week in its home opener, while Chaney remains home to play Boardman.