CHESTER — Saturday wasn’t Chester’s cleanest game, but it didn’t need to be.

The Clippers were missing senior fullback and defensive lineman Zyon Santana, and freshman running back Sa’Mhad Williams spent much of the nonleague contest against Upper Darby on the sideline banged up.

So Chester leaned on its big-play guys to claim a 24-13 win in its home opener. And nobody wearing the orange and black delivered bigger plays than Sekai Brown-Murray

The senior athlete was impressive right from the start. On Chester’s third play, he caught a quick slant from quarterback Kenjai Gatling and darted 65 yards for a touchdown. With Upper Darby threatening in the second quarter, Brown-Murray picked off quarterback Safiy Salley at the Chester 3 and took it 97 yards the other way, giving the Clippers an 18-7 lead.

Brown-Murray finished with three catches for 102 yards and added a 26-yard run. He had his fingerprints all over the game.

“Just trying to do what I do best,” he said.

For a player who has become one of Chester’s most dangerous weapons, those kinds of plays have become part of the job description. Brown-Murray takes pride in being someone the Clippers can count on whenever they need a spark.

“I’m always here when my team needs me,” Brown-Murray said. “I’m a game changer. Every time I step onto the field, that’s what I try to do.

“The pick-six, I was sitting on it. I know my responsibility when we are near the end zone. They throw the flat, and I know when it comes to me I’m gonna get it and make a play.”

Chester scored on its first two possessions, with Gatling finding Quadir Ward on a screen later in the first quarter for a 66 yards score down the Chester sideline.

That gave the Clippers a 12-0 lead, but Upper Darby (2-2) didn’t go away. The Royals got a break when Hasan Johnson intercepted Gatling and a late-hit penalty on Chester put the ball at the Clippers’ 12-yard line. Two plays later, Jeremiah Benoit scampered six yards for a touchdown, trimming the deficit to 12-7. The Clippers carried an 18-7 lead into halftime.

Upper Darby opened the third quarter with a promising drive, but Chester’s defense stood tall. The Royals turned the ball over on downs at the Chester 29, as senior defensive end Jabree Davis had two tackles for loss during the possession.

Davis was a problem throughout, and the Clippers’ defensive front limited Upper Darby’s rushing attack to 58 yards on 25 carries.

After spending much of the afternoon making life difficult for the Royals, Davis and the Chester defense knew they would have to keep grinding as Upper Darby continued to hang around.

“Our mindset coming into today was to stay together and do whatever it takes, and we had a lot of people step up,” Davis said. “We just have to continue to stay locked in. Throughout this season, I’ve noticed and the whole team has noticed that our energy gets low. We tried to bring it up today and keep it up the whole game. We had to focus on our assignments and give it everything we had.”

Chester’s offense stalled on its first two possessions of the second half, giving Upper Darby another opening. The Royals took advantage. Salley completed a fourth-down pass to Amir Crooks, who caught the ball at the line of scrimmage out wide, made a Chester defender miss and raced 23 yards for a touchdown with 7:18 remaining. That sliced Chester’s lead to 18-13.

Salley finished 13-for-27 for 194 yards, while Crooks caught seven passes for 78 yards.

Williams, clearly not feeling his best, put the Clippers offense on his back. The freshman had been dinged up and mostly watched from the sideline Saturday, but he was ready when the Clippers needed him down the stretch. Williams carried the ball six times on the ensuing drive, his final run up the middle for 36 yards and a touchdown. He finished the drive with 70 of his 77 rushing yards.

Chester wasn’t perfect. Two turnovers and 13 penalties left plenty to straighten out. But the Clippers are 4-0. They’ll get one more nonleague test next week against Dunbar (D.C.) before Del Val League play begins Oct. 2 at Interboro, which also sits at 4-0 following its 33-0 rout of Sun Valley Friday night.