JUNIOR HIGH FOOTBALL RECAP
CEDARVILLE – Charleston junior high left little doubt to the outcome of Thursday night’s game at Cedarville, scoring early and often in a 41-0 road win to improve to 6-0 on the season.
Charleston’s first four touches on offense all went for touchdowns. On the first play from scrimmage, Daeton Stewart connected with Tanner Schilling on a 40-yard go route for a touchdown, to make the score 7-0.
On Cedarville’s first play on offense, the Tigers defense forced a fumble and recovered it at the Cedarville 27-yard line. On the next play, Stewart would this time connect with wide receiver Carson Lensing on a short pass to the flats. Carson would make a band Pirates miss as he ran into the endzone for a 27-yard touchdown. The extra point was no good, and the score was 13-0 Tigers 37 seconds into the game.
On Cedarville’s next possession, they were able to hold onto the ball but unable to move the chains. And on fourth down and forced to punt, there was a bad snap and the punter was stopped at the Cedarville 20-yard line.
On Charleston’s third play on offense, they would call a Grant Little run up the middle. Grant broke 4 tackles and drug some defenders with him for a powerful 20-yard touchdown run. He would also carry in the 2-point conversion to make the score 21-0 Charleston with 5:07 left in the first quarter.
Cedarville’s third possession was a near mirror image of the second. Cedarville was unable to gain any ground, forced to punt, and had another errant snap. This time Charleston would take over at the 6-yard line.
Cooper Carruth made short work of the fourth drive on a 6-yard touchdown run to push the score to 28-0.
If you’re scoring at home, that’s four touchdowns on four offensive plays. Charleston junior high head coach Matt Stewart was pleased with how his team came out to play.
“Four scores in four plays is rare,” said Stewart. “They executed from the very beginning of the game. The ‘dudes’ up front had complete control of the game. It’s always good to score in multiple phases of the game, it takes the pressure off and is always a boost.”
Charleston would add one more score in the first half, but wouldn’t need to take a snap on offense for this one. Cedarville was once again forced to punt on their fourth possession, and this punt was returned 57 yards for a touchdown by Jaxson Todd to make the score 35-0. That makes it five touchdowns from five different Tigers.
Charleston’s final score came in the mercy rule shortened second-half when Barrett Smith connected with Elliott McMakin for a 30-yard touchdown pass. The extra point was no good to make the score 41-0, and would eventually be the final score. Easton Underwood, Jaten Murray, and Eli Murray also contributed receptions on that second-half drive.
The Tigers defense was relentless in the first half, holding Cedarville to -37 yards offense and zero first downs. Kurt Lachowsky led the defense with five tackles, followed by Cam Fox and Maddox Loyd both with four apiece.
“The defense played exceptionally well,” said Stewart. “Cedarville has some size up front and two bigger backs that were hard to get to the ground. To keep them out of the endzone was good momentum going in to next week against Greenland.”
Greenland will be coming in with a 6-0 record of their own next Thursday in what will be a battle of the unbeatens.
