Hilltoppers

“I was really happy with the second quarter,” North coach Shawn Dodd said. “We started off a little slow. That’s an aggressive football team, a well-coached football team. They got after it. We just didn’t match their aggression.

“I was a little disappointed the way we were

arm tackling in the third quarter, but the second quarter was a bright spot.”

Pettyjohn added a 4-yard run with 8:55 left in the fourth quarter, and then Hilltopper linebacker Cade McDevitt removed all doubt when he scooped up a fumble and dashed 25 yards to the end zone for the 42-7 final.

“We threw the ball a few times,” Chardon coach Mitch Hewitt said. “It’s really hard to throw the ball tonight, just because the conditions are less than ideal. That’s not what we’re known for. The second half was a different situation. We said we were going to go out and pound, and that’s what we did.”

Both coaches were grateful simply for the fact their schools were able to play a football game during the novel coronavirus pandemic. Players, coaches, cheerleaders, fans and everyone involved did their best to make an awkward situation with social distancing, masks and everything else work as smoothly as possible.

“I just said to our team, when you think about all the members of the band, all the members of both football teams, cheerleaders — it’s easy to get stuck and forget what high school athletics and extracurricular activities does for kids,” Hewitt said. “I think these kids showed tonight it’s special.”