Chieftains roll by Rockets

BASCOM — Throughout the season Hopewell-Loudon's football team has relied on Braylon Martinez, Blake Berrier and Evan Kreais. No sense in messing with a winning formula. Martinez scored three touchdowns, Kreais passed for another and Berrier added a pick-6 as the Chieftains rolled to a 33-3 victory over visiting Pandora-Gilboa in Division VII Region 26 playoff action Friday.Hopewell-Loudon (12-0) will face Patrick Henry (10-2) next Friday at a site yet to be determined. The Patriots advanced after thumping Arlington 40-14. Pandora-Gilboa finishes its season 8-4. "Our defense was absolutely phenomenal," Chieftains coach Brian Colatruglio said. "(Defensive coordinator Nate Colatruglio) had an excellent plan tonight and our kids executed it to perfection the entire night." The Chieftains received the opening kickoff and scored on their opening possession, a 15-play, 63-yard drive capped by Martinez's 3-yard rushing touchdown at 3:37. P-G drove the ball from their own 45 to the Chieftains' 8-yard line before stalling and settling for a 20-yard field goal by Skylar Richardson at 11:54 of the second quarter. Hopewell-Loudon put together another long drive that chewed some time off the clock, using 10 plays to move the ball 55 yards, the last 7 of which were covered by a pass from Evan Kreais to Adam Kreais at the back of the end zone. Martinez kicked the extra point to extend the Chieftains lead to 13-3 at 7:09.Matthew Wyman intercepted a Cory Gerten pass and returned it 5 yards to halt the next Rockets drive. Hopewell-Loudon converted on the P-G miscue as Martinez scored an 18-yard touchdown at 1:45 to push the Chieftains advantage to 20-3. The Chieftains held Pandora-Gilboa to a three-and-out on its next possession, but the Rockets had a trick play up their sleeves. On fourth-and-4 from their own 49, P-G ran a fake punt, but Aidan Morris was unable to cover the ground they needed to convert and H-L took possession at the Rockets 45 with 1:16 remaining in the first half.This time instead of chewing time off the clock the Chieftains went into 2-minute drill mode, using six plays and just 53 seconds to score. Martinez finished it off with a 3-yard rush with 23 seconds remaining on the clock, giving Hopewell-Loudon a 27-3 lead at halftime. "I think Hopewell-Loudon outplayed us in a lot of aspects tonight," Pandora-Gilboa coach Matt Hershey said. "We didn't weather the storm very well and they were very opportunistic: we had a turnover early and they took advantage of it. "We just could not get them off the field on third down all night long, which is a credit to them." Both teams went three-and-out on their first possession of the second half. The Rockets second possession ended with an interception by Brayden Brickman. Later in the quarter Gerten was picked off once again, this time by Berrier and he ran it back for a touchdown at 2:31 for a 33-3 score. Due to OHSAA rules, the remainder of the game was played with a running clock. Neither team was able to get much going in the fourth quarter and 33-3 was the final margin.