Chardon routs Columbian in state semifinal, 47-7

BRUNSWICK – Chardon is No. 1 in the state. The Hilltoppers had a running clock with every opponent this season but one. In a Division III state semifinal against Columbian – it added one more to that tally – in a 47-7 drubbing of the young Tornadoes.Chardon (11-0) earned a lot of what it got Friday at Brunswick High School's Auto Mart Stadium. However, Columbian started the game about as bad as a team could in such a big game. The Hilltoppers scored on the third play of the game on a 69-yard run by James Pettyjohn. Then after a penalty on the kickoff, which became a theme for Columbian starting in horrid field position on many drives, Chardon picked off a TC pass. Chardon quarterback Drew Fetchik gave the ball right back to TC on a Gunther Kissell pick. But Columbian fumbled the ball right back to the Hilltoppers. They didn't waste much time capitalizing as Pettyjohn ran in a 35-yard TD. Fetchik added a 12-yard QB keeper for a score to give Chardon a 21-0 advantage after one quarter.TC (9-2) started the contest with three turnovers on five possessions."They're really good in all three phases and the kicking game really aided them early and put us in bad positions early. We had some bad kick returns, and we kept getting in our own way," TC coach Judd Lutz said. "We fought and had some young guys do some really good things."Defensively, we knew it was going to be hard to slow them down. We wanted to try to slow them down, create some turnovers, get off the field when given the chance. I thought we created some momentum getting the ball back with a turnover, but we couldn't compliment in with getting the ball into the end zone. They're really good and a mature team, physically with 26 seniors. They are big up front and complimentary with the speed they have. When you have size like they do in the middle and speed to get to the edge, it's tough. They've obviously steamrolled their opponents for a reason."The offense was a well-oiled machine for most of the night, despite three turnovers for the Hilltoppers. The defense was equally as good, shutting down the TC run game completely as Columbian had -30 yards on the ground for the game, while Chardon rushed for 459 yards, including 231 yards and four scores from Pettyjohn."James is a talented kid and a player-of-the-year type player and certainly in northeast Ohio … he's a special kid and he's easy to root for," Chardon coach Mitch Hewitt said. "It makes it all the easier to see him have success."We've been fortunate to (get off to good starts) all year long and that's a testament to our preparation. We were a little disappointed the state gave (Columbian) 900 tickets and only gave us 400. We used that as motivation and ultimately we felt a little bit slighted as we've been No. 1 in the state all year and to give us the visitor locker room and visitor stands and they double up their ticket total ... so we used that all week as motivation." After the 21-0 start, the Hilltoppers added a 33-yard field goal from Nathan Tager. Then after another TC penalty on a kick return, the Tornadoes started at their own 4. Brayden Roggow was under pressure and got rid of the ball, but with no receiver in the area and he was in the end zone, so Chardon tacked on a safety.On the ensuing possession, the Hilltoppers put it to the Tornadoes with a 16-play drive that spanned over seven minutes of clock. It ended with a 4-yard TD for Pettyjohn.Down 33-0 late in the opening half, Columbian's Brody Conley jumped on a Chardon bad snap and recovered the fumble.Columbian managed to get on the scoreboard before the half as Roggow found his brother, Bryce, for a 15-yard TD pass on a fourth-and-10.With a little momentum entering the half, the Tornadoes got the ball to start the second half, but turned the ball over on downs.Fetchik ran in a 19-yard score for the Hilltoppers and then Pettyjohn capped the scoring with a 68-yard TD late in the third quarter. "Talking to their coach and looking up his pedigree and seeing how he built that program, he's now reaping some really good rewards for some really good classes he's got right now, so kudos to him," Lutz said. "The scout team quarterback did his best this week in emulating (wing-T), but their QB runs it really well and they got a great system. They are running it really well and at a high level right now. I think they have a good shot at doing something special next game too."Chardon only completed one pass in the game. Fetchik had 74 yards on 14 carries, while Sean Carr added 71 yards on 11 carries for the Hilltoppers.Bryce Roggow led TC with 39 yards receiving, while Bret Minnick had 38 yards receiving. The Hilltoppers held 1,000 yard rusher Kesean Jackson to a yard on five attempts."That coach is a great coach. To be that young and get a team this far … it's taken me a decade to do it and he's doing it with a young team. That team is loaded coming back," Hewitt said.The Tornadoes' historic season came to and end, but a young nucleus will have high expectations for years to come. Plus, the seniors went from an 0-10 season as freshman to a state semifinal."First year being back, I was a middle school math teacher and I had a lot of these guys in class or in study hall and to see these guys grow into young men, some of them freshman year, we didn't have a freshman team because of lack of numbers," Lutz said. "So they had to play JV and on Friday nights they didn't see a ton of success and not experiencing a ton of success JV-wise, so that's a tough pill to swallow. "For them to believe, to grind and work and now put the program on their backs and continue to raise the level ... I told them they're not the exception, they have now raised the expectation. We won't take this for granted. We'll celebrate this season, but we have a lot of kids back, but at the same point we didn't get here easily and it won't be an easy way back, so we have a tough road ahead."