The Hilltoppers dominated Eastlake North in all aspects of the game, as they picked up their first Western Reserve Conference victory 44-6.
The Hilltoppers dominated Eastlake North in all aspects of the game, as they picked up their first Western Reserve Conference victory 44-6.
Chardon (4-3, 1-1 WRC) scored on its first six possessions of the game and started the third quarter with a running clock.
The Hilltoppers first team simply overwhelmed a banged up North (3-4, 0-2 WRC) squad that was missing one of their top running backs and saw their other main running back leave the game with an injury.
After forcing a three and out on North’s first possession of the game, Chardon took the punt and began to march down the field.
Sophomore quarterback Andrew Cole capped off the drive with a 28-yard touchdown run to open up the scoring at the midway mark of the first quarter.
Then, pinned back on their own 6-yard line following a North punt, Cole faked out the Ranger defense. With North expecting senior halfback Drayton Allgood to have the ball, Cole ran nearside, and thanks to a couple of nice blocks by junior fullback Drew Platz, turned on the jets for a 94-yard touchdown run.
“As soon as I saw Drew block the first guy to the ground, I knew I had to score,” said Cole. “I can’t let that block go for nothing.”
“All the motion away got the line free, so all I had to do was block the corner and that was not too hard,” said Platz.
Midway through the second quarter, Allgood got on the scoreboard thanks to 34-yard scoring run to make it 20-0. On the ensuing PAT, Allgood, who is the holder, saw something in the way North lined up and called an audible. The result was a successful two-point conversion pass to Braedan Shultz to put Chardon up 22-0.
With the offensive rolling, the defensive effort was partially overlooked as North became a one-dimensional team.
Senior defensive lineman Matthew McIlroy explained that keying in so much on the run leaves the passing game exposed.
“It makes it more difficult when they actually do pass the ball,” he explained. “They were so run oriented that when the they did throw the ball, receivers were open. It’s just harder to cover the pass when you’re so run focused.”
With 2:32 to go before halftime, Cole connected with Dominic Frisco, who ran a seam route up the middle, for a 59-yard touchdown pass. Cal Smith punched in the two-point conversion and the Hilltoppers were up 30-0.
“Dominic works so hard,” said Cole. “We’ve been preparing that play all week, getting in extra throws after practice every day. He ran a great route and I put the ball where it needed to be.”
“We talked Sunday night that we’ve got to figure out ways to create some big plays,” said Landies. “Twelve play drives are nice, but they’re hard to execute that many plays in a row. So we talked about trying to find ways to get some more explosive plays. We actually had a wide receiver race on Monday to see who was the fastest guy and the winner was Frisco.”
The decision to go for the two-point conversion was not to rub it in, but to get his players rest.
“I love Shawn Dodd. He’s a great guy,” Landies said. “But when you get a running clock, you keep bodies healthy. It wasn’t to embarrass them.”
Chardon cashed in on another score, as Cole punched it in from 5-yards out with 5 seconds left in the half to give the Hilltoppers a 37-0 halftime lead.
To start the third quarter, Chardon promptly moved down the field, as Platz punched in a touchdown from 4 yards out to extend the lead to 44-0.
The offensive starters scored a touchdown on all six drives they played.
North finally got on the scoreboard late in the fourth when all the starters were out of the game.
Following the contest, Chardon players and their head coach discussed the effort it took in practice to score 44 points.
“Coach Landies pushed us to the limit this week,” Cole said. “He told us, ‘You guys aren’t going to like me this week or the rest of the year, but you’ll love me at the end because of the wins we are going to get.’”
“It was the defensive line,” said Platz, when asked to discuss the defensive effort. “The d-line mad an impact and let us finish them off.”
“The defense was my question mark tonight,” said Landies. “How were we going to handle their physicality, and we answered that pretty early.”
McIlroy called the performance awesome.
“I think it was one of our cleanest defensive games of the year to far, and we need to keep building off this and keep dominating other opponents,” he said.
He added that the effort was a testament to the week they had in practice.
“Coach Landies was very tough on us in practice and we had a different approach to practice,” said McIlroy. “We worked on some really hard things. His philosophy is do the hard things better and be the better team.”
“We need to starting buying into that,” Landies said. “We need to buy into that what we do in practice is going to translate into the game.”
The loss against Riverside marked the end of a touch three game stretch that saw Chardon go 1-2 against Perry, Cardinal Mooney and Riverside.
To a man, the Hilltoppers said they needed a blowout game after those three games.
“Coach really got it into us to not take North lightly,” said Platz. “They’re a good team, but our hard work helped us come out on top.”
Up next for Chardon is a road trip down State Route 322 to Mayfield (4-3, 1-1 WRC).
