CHARLESTON 40, CUTTER-MORNING STAR 12
CHARLESTON – The Cutter-Morning Star Eagles presented an offense that Charleston hasn’t seen much of in the 2026 season, with a pass-first spread attack. But the Tigers were up to the task, holding CMS to six first half points, and dominated the Eagles on the ground for 304 yards in a 40-12 victory in the first round of the 3A playoffs on Friday night.
Charleston would establish control early, building a 26-6 halftime advantage, and would answer every attempt made by Cutter-Morning Star to get back into the game.
CMS would receive the opening kickoff and would showcase their offense early. Eagles QB Jordan Smith converted on 3rd and 9 with a 16-yard completion to Kingstyn Hollingsworth. The same duo would later hook up for a 9-yard completion, but the Eagles would later turn the ball over on downs after an incomplete pass on fourth down.
Charleston would take over at their own 27-yard line for its first possession with 7:24 to go in the first quarter. This drive was highlighted by Burleson completing two passes of 17 and 13 yards to Matteo Gaona to get past midfield, and was capped off with a 21-yard Finn Schmalz carry to go up 6-0 early.
The Eagles’ second possession would be short lived, thanks to an 11-yard loss on a Brayden Bates sack to force third-and-19. CMS would have to punt away to Charleston on fourth down with 1:15 to go in the first quarter.
On Charleston’s second drive, we would see a bit of the future of Tigers football with freshman quarterback Daeton Stewart entering the game. Stewart, coming off a perfect 10-0 season on the junior high level, would start the drive with an inside handoff to Burleson for six yards, followed by runs of 16 and 7 yards from Finn Schmalz. With the defense cheating up expecting run, Stewart would hit Matteo Gaona for a 35-yard touchdown pass down the seam to give Charleston a 13-0 lead. This was Stewart’s first touchdown pass at the high school level.
“Daeton handled it well,” said head coach Ricky May. “That’s a power run set and he set it up nice and made a good throw.”
Cutter-Morning Star would have their most successful drive of the night on their third possession, with the Eagles successfully converting on three consecutive third downs. Smith would then find Hollingsworth in the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown pass to cut the Charleston lead to 13-6 with 8:04 left in the second quarter.
Charleston would then face some adversity following an interception on a Burleson pass attempt to Gaona, and CMS returned the interception to the Charleston 36-yard line. This would be as close as the Eagles would get to making it a game.
The Eagles would get 8 yards on the second play of the drive on another Smith to Hollingsworth completion, but were plagued with two straight incompletions on third and fourth down for another turnover on downs.
Charleston would then quickly close the door on any potential comeback with a 28-yard Finn Schmalz touchdown run, his second of the night, to extend the Charleston lead to 20-6.
The Tigers defense continued to pressure the Eagles, thanks to a Matteo Gaona interception that was returned to the CMS 28-yard line with 51 seconds remaining before halftime.
Charleston would find the end zone one more time before halftime, with Burleson completing an 11-yard touchdown pass to Ryder Julian in the corner of the endzone to give the Tigers a 26-6 lead to end the first half.
Charleston would finish the first half with an impressive balance of 146 yards passing and 138 yards rushing. Finn Schmalz led the way with 103 yards on the ground in the first half.
“Finn played well and finished runs by punishing people,” said May. “It is a real testament of how good our line is playing, I felt like the blocked well.”
Cutter-Morning Star would attempt to make a comeback in the second half, with a successful onside kick recovery that took the Tigers off guard. However, the Eagles’ offense would sputter once again, turning the ball over on downs.
Charleston would then establish the ground game on their first possession of the second half, with Burleson and Schmalz combining for 50 yards on 6 carries, including a 10-yard touchdown run by Burleson on a QB keeper to give Charleston a 34-6 lead following a successful two-point conversion.
CMS wouldn’t go away easily, and had no interest in seeing the mercy rule clock run. The Eagles would score one last time on a 39-yard pass from Smith to Hollingsworth to cut the lead to 34-12.
Charleston’s final score would come thanks to a heavy dose of Lukas Burleson. The junior quarterback would have a 14-yard jet sweep pass completion to Ryder Julian, followed by a 20-yard QB keeper down to the CMS 3-yard line. Burleson would punch it in two plays later from one yard out to take a 40-12 lead.
Finn Schmalz was fantastic once again, with 193 yards on 21 carries and two touchdowns. Burleson would finish with 92 yards rushing on 15 carries and a touchdown, and added 102 yards passing.
Defensively, senior Gunner Schmalz led the team with ten tackles, with Finn Schmalz and Reese Smith adding seven apiece. Matteo Gaona had two interceptions.
Charleston will travel to Glen Rose for their second round match-up next week, after the Beavers cruised past Mountain View 40-7 in their first round game.
All photos by Ronni Tate Young of RNN. See more photos on the Team Press Pass Facebook Page.
