Chardon dominated Mayfield on all sides of the ball in route to a 49-7 Western Reserve Conference victory.
Game photos click here.
Chardon dominated Mayfield on all sides of the ball in route to a 49-7 Western Reserve Conference victory.
According to Drew Pasteur’s website, fantastic50.net, the Hilltoppers (5-3, 2-1 WRC) clinched a playoff spot and are likely in the running to finish anywhere from a seven seed to a five seed, if they win out. Should Chardon split its final two games, Pasteur’s algorithms have the Toppers finishing as a 12 or 13 seed.
On a night the offense was clicking, the defense played well and special teams made some big plays.
“It was domination on all sides,” Chardon Head Coach Mitch Hewitt. said “A lot of weapons on offense.
“Even our twos getting in was something to see, because their ones were still in.”
Senior quarterback Will Francis led all rushers with 168 yards on 15 carries and three touchdowns. Francis averaged 11.2 yards per carry on the night. He also completed three of seven passes for 43 yards.
On the defensive side, junior linebacker Alexander Ash paced the effort with 10 total tackles, including five solo stops, two and a half tackles for loss, one pass break-up and half a QB sack. On the year, he leads the team in all tackling categories, including total tackles (91) and tackles for losses (18).
Chardon jumped out to a 7-0 lead on the second play of the game, as Francis ripped off a 40-yard touchdown run. The score was setup by a 50-yard kickoff return by junior Caleb Hewitt on the opening kickoff that gave Chardon’s offense only half a field to work with on the two-play drive.
Midway through the first quarter, Drago Vujaklija upped the lead to 14-0 with a five-yard touchdown run.
Early in the second quarter, the Wildcats (3-5, 1-2 WRC) capitalized on a trick play, as Bo Lewis hauled in a 49-yard touchdown pass from Joe Pinzone to cut the deficit to 14-7.
It was a rough night overall for Mayfield, as starting quarterback Rocco Monastero did not play due to injury. Pinzone, the team’s starting running back, played quarterback and essentially ran a Wildcat offense.
The injury, combined with having to face a tough Topper defense, made it a miserable night for the Mayfield’s offense.
“They were short-handed on offense, and defensively, we thought we would be in a good position,” Coach Hewitt said. “It’s hard to run their offense with a running back running it. The trick play was frustrating, because we worked on it all week long knowing it would be something they would throw at us.”
Said Francis on Chardon’s defense: “If you watch them, they’re one of the most physical defenses you will see. I don’t want to play against them.”
Following the Mayfield score, Chardon went on to score 28 unanswered points to close out the game.
Early in the contest, the physical Wildcat defense tried to seal off the jet sweep, which allowed Francis to operate between the tackles and gain huge junks of yards.
Then, after being burned by Francis enough, Mayfield began to defend the inside ground game, which opened up the outside.
With 4:35 to go before halftime, Chardon capped off a time-consuming drive with a six-yard touchdown run by Francis to the right side that upped the score to 21-7.
Just before halftime, Chardon engineered a two-minute drive, and it was the arm of Francis that moved the Toppers down the field.
Francis admitted that compared to games earlier in the year, he is now more comfortable throwing the football.
“Early in the season, I was most nervous about throwing the ball and just seeing in the pocket with me being so short,” he said.
Now he has more confidence throwing the ball.
With a little more than a minute to go in the second quarter, junior Caleb Hewitt founded paydirt with a 16-yard jet sweep, keyed by a great block from senior AJ Bruce. The touchdown gave Chardon a 28-7 lead.
In the third quarter, Vujaklija scored on a 42-yard touchdown run to put the game into a running clock situation.
Francis, late in the third, ripped off a 49-yard touchdown run to put the Hilltoppers up, 42-7.
The run also pushed him over 1,000 yards for the season, with his current total at 1,046 yards.
“Coach Navs called a great game plan, and I think we executed pretty well,” Francis said. “We had a bunch of huge holes to run through because the offensive line executed.”
Midway through the fourth quarter, sophomore quarterback Drayton Allgood led the second unit down the field for his second touchdown in as many weeks.
“He’s Braxton Miller,” Coach Hewitt said of Allgood. “He’s highly explosive and he’s just a sophomore, but he’s going to need some seasoning.”
Over the last two weeks, Chardon has outscored both South and Mayfield by a combined 98-7.
“We just punched our ticket to the postseason,” the coach said. “We’re just scratching the surface; we can get a lot better.”
Of the way his team has played during the stretch, Francis said, “It feels good. We could be 6-1. Everyone was down after that Kenston game, but they kept fighting, and tonight we punched out ticket to the playoffs.”
Both Hewitt and Francis said the talk in the locker room was that the games played in weeks seven, eight and nine were must-win games if Chardon wanted to play in the postseason.
“We thought it was going to be a battle, and it was,” Francis said. “They are a physical team, but we played well.”
Despite the big win, penalties remain a problem for the Hilltoppers.
“It’s our Achilles heel that we ultimately have to overcome,” Coach Hewitt said. “Against good teams, it’s much more glaring.”
“We’ve gotta be better,” Francis stressed.
The win set up Chardon for a two-game home stand, against Eastlake North and Riverside, to close out the year.
