The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Chardon defense dominates Buchtel
Hilltoppers record nine sacks, two pick-sixes in resounding nonconference road victory
The Hilltoppers pounded host Buchtel, 42-0, on Aug. 28, thanks in part to a stellar defensive performance.
AKRON >> Heads up to the remaining teams on the Chardon football team’s schedule.
The goons are coming.
The Hilltoppers pounded host Buchtel, 42-0, on Aug. 28, thanks in part to a stellar defensive performance that included nine sacks and two interceptions returned for touchdowns.
The win extends Chardon’s winning streak to 14 games, coming on the heels of last year’s 12-0 Division III state championship.
“Our defense picked up where it left off last year,” said Coach Mitch Hewitt. “We’ve got some goons up there and guys who like to get after the quarterback. Schematically, we stunt a lot. We knew if we could get into the second half, we’d be in good shape.”
The Hilltoppers weren’t just in good shape.
They were in exceptional shape. Thanks to their defense. Led by linemen Cooper Felger and Alex McDonald, and linebackers Brody Dotson, Heath Fetchik and Ryan Peterson, Chardon spent almost as much time in the Buchtel backfield as the three quarterbacks the Griffins put out there.
The sack-a-thon meant that Buchtel rushed for negative-29 yards in the game. It wasn’t until the Griffins put together a few drives in the fourth quarter against Chardon’s No. 2 defense that Buchtel got out of negative yardage for the game.
Buchtel finished with 80 total yards — 109 in the air to go with the negative-29 rushing.
“We played really well,” said senior linebacker/ safety Nathanael Sulka. “I’m proud of the boys. Our defensive line, they make our job really easy.”
Thanks in part to the constant defensive pressure from the front seven, Chardon got picksixes from Sulka and Leo Columbi. Sulka’s came on a highlight-reel one-handed tip that he hauled in and took to the house. Columbi’s game later in the game when he took the interception 70 yards to paydirt.
Hewitt lauded the interceptions, but estimated the defensive pressure had something to do with them.
“I’d like to think so,” Hewitt said. “When you’re standing back there playing the hardest position in any sport and people are trying to kill you, that (pressure) plays a party. I know I wouldn’t want to (play quarterback).”
Chardon scored midway through the first on a 15-yard run by quarterback Alex Henry. That lead grew to 14-0 on Sulka’s interception.
“I was reading the quarterback’s eyes and saw it,” he said. “I was running like 2 miles per hour. I don’t know how I scored. I was so hot and tired.”
After Chardon’s sixth sack of the first half forced a Buchtel punt, Henry scored again from the 1 for a 21-0 halftime lead.
Chardon outgained Buchtel, 136-0, in the first half, but didn’t stop there. Sean Carr popped a 21yard scoring run on fourth down to make it 28-0 in the third, and then Columbi’s pick-six made it a 35-0, running clock game.
Zoran Vujaklija’s short touchdown run in the fourth wrapped up the scoring.
Buchtel coach Brian Williams lamented the afternoon’s happenings.
“Effort is everything and we didn’t bring any effort today and it showed,” he said. “We need to keep pounding. No excuses. When the whistle blows, we need to be ready to play, and we didn’t do that.”
Because of the interception returns and short fields from sacks and punts, Chardon only had 236 yards of offense. Henry ran for 61 and passed for 37.
Hewitt said there remain mistakes on offense, from penalties to turnovers, that he’d like cleaned up. Chardon hosts Youngstown Ursuline in Week 3 — a game scheduled to be played at West Geauga — and Hewitt hopes his team shores things up prior to then.
“We’ve got a lot to work on,” he said. ‘If we make those mistakes next week, we’re going to be on the other end of it.”
“I was reading the quarterback’s eyes and saw it. I was running like 2 miles per hour. I don’t know how I scored. I was so hot and tired.” — Chardon’s Nathanael Sulka