The Hilltoppers scored early and often as they dominated in all aspects of their 49-14 playoff victory over Warren Howland.
The Hilltoppers scored early and often as they dominated in all aspects of their 49-14 playoff victory over Warren Howland.
Chardon’s first playoff game of the season played out like many of its regular season games – a dominating defensive performance, a solid offensive performance, and a running clock in the second half.
“The down side of being the one seed is you’re the one seed,” said Chardon head coach Mitch Hewitt. “The positive side of being the one seed is when the 17 seed comes in, they already have a level of doubt. It’s our job to be sure we wanted that seed, and they’re only going to play with us as long as we wanted them to.”
The top-ranked seed in the region wasted no time in defending their home turf and showed the Tigers why they are the top seed.
The Hilltoppers got on the scoreboard about a minute and half into the contest when senior Charlie Brosch blocked a Tiger punt and Rocco Perrico recovered it in the endzone for a touchdown.
Howland’s next possession ended when the Toppers stopped the Tigers on a fake punt near midfield.
On Chardon’s first offensive possession of the game, senior running back James Pettyjohn took a handoff and ran 48 yards into the endzone for a touchdown to make it 14-0.
Pettyjohn carried the ball four times on the night for 121 yards and one touchdown.
“He is a special player, an ankle breaker,” said Hewitt of his running back. “He’s got vision, speed, and he’s tough.”
Eric Babinchak, the heavily recruited Howland running back, ripped off a 70-yard run to put the Tigers on the Chardon 3 yard line and in position to respond to the Toppers touchdown.
Outside of that big run, the Toppers held Babinchak in check, as they limited his big runs and kept him out of the endzone.
“We had a great game plan coach Landies drew up,” said linebacker Cade McDevitt. “We stacked the box and watched their lineman, and when they pull, they’re going that way. We had a great game plan.”
On fourth and goal, Howland head coach Steve Boyle decided to go for it, but his team could not covert and turned the ball over on downs.
“That goal line stand doesn’t take place if Blake Barker doesn’t sprint as fast as he can to tackle him down on the 3 yard line,” added Hewitt. “That’ll be talked about in our program for years and years. We teach effort, never quitting on a play and that epitomizes everything we teach.”
McDevitt said the Toppers run peruse drills every day at practice and knew once Barker made the stop, it would allow the defense to regroup to make a stand.
The decision by Howland to go for the touchdown on fourth down backfired, though, as quarterback Drew Fetchik led Chardon down the field after the turnover. Following a 47-yard pass to tight end Alex McDonald to the 1, Fetchik finished the drive with a single-yard score.
By the end of the first quarter, the Hilltoppers were up 21-0.
The onslaught continued in the second quarter.
Fetchik connected with split end Nathaniel Sulka for a 21-yard touchdown reception early in the second quarter.
About five minutes later, fullback Sean Carr punched it from four yards out to make it 35-0.
Then, late in the second quarter, senior Evan Ash scored on a seven-yard run to extend the lead to 42-0 at halftime.
A Ryan Petersen 21-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter accounted for Chardon’s final score.
On the night, seven different Toppers found the endzone.
“We’ve got a lot of weapons, and I think we’re doing a good job this year of getting our weapons the ball,” Hewitt said.
Like a number of the Hilltopper games, the second half featured a running clock as the Topper’s second unit kept pace with the Howland first team
It was an overall dominate performance by Chardon, who had a bye in week seven.
Hewitt was concerned the layoff would hurt his team, but the time actually allowed his team to heal from injuries and re-focus.
“When you’re playing as well as we were, then you take a week off, you don’t know what that’s going to produce,” Hewitt said.
In fact the outcome was their first complete game of the season, although the players had some jitters.
“There’s always playoff jitters, especially for the seniors, but we were ready, we were prepared,” McDevitt added.
Chardon advances to the regional quarterfinals of the Division III Region 9 quarterfinals against Geneva, whose head coach is former Hilltopper assistant coach Chip Sorber.
