Chieftains roll by rival Calvert, secure historic 5th straight SBC River title

Hopewell-Loudon set the tone Friday night.On the opening drive of the game at Frost-Kalnow Stadium, the Chieftains took 10:14 off of the clock, converted six third downs and capped an 18-play drive with a Kellen Frankart 7-yard touchdown catch from Jacoby Ellis. That was the kind of night it was going to be for Calvert's defense, which played well, but couldn't get off the field as the Chieftains blanked the Senecas 26-0. H-L finished off another unbeaten season (9-0, 6-0 SBC River) and claimed its fifth straight SBC River title. It became the first school in the SBC to win five straight league titles all outright."This feels amazing to know we haven't lost a league game in my four years and even when I was a manager when I was in eighth grade they didn't lose either … it's groundbreaking to be honest," Chieftains do-it-all back Braylon Martinez said. Chieftains coach Brian Colatruglio knew what type of game it was going to be with a stout Calvert defensive front, but his team kept with it and dominated up front on both sides of the ball."We set the tone … honestly I would've liked to defer to play defense first, but that's what (Calvert) did, so they kicked it to us and we pounded out some first downs and caught some tough passes to convert some third down conversions and basically took the whole first quarter to score," he said. "Really that set the tone for the whole night. That's a physical football team. We found a few things we were able to have success with, but our offensive line did a great job, tight ends, backs blocking … to have enough success on the ground and then we made some big plays in the pass game."This is the second senior class in a row that can say they've never lost to a conference opponent. That's special, we don't take that for granted. We told this group that this was your championship. The other four didn't count for you, this is the one for you. They owned that. This is why you play football at Hopewell-Loudon. At this point of the year to play in games like this that matter, and we showed up big tonight."After the huge opening drive for the Chieftains, Calvert punted after a three-and-out. On a third-and-13, Ellis dropped back to pass and hurled a spiral to Jack Colatruglio who made a contested catch and kept running until he found the end zone for a 58-yard TD. H-L failed on the first two two-point conversions, so the score was 12-0 early in the second quarter.Calvert (6-4, 3-3 SBC) managed to get a first down, but had to punt again. But the punt was blocked, which gave H-L the ball at Calvert's 48.Then 10 plays later on a third-down-and-8, Kellen Frankart found a wide-open Martinez for a 12-yard TD pass and the extra point from Martinez was good to make it 19-0 Chieftains.Really before Calvert got anything going, it was down three scores. In the opening half, H-L ran 34 plays, while Calvert ran just 12."I just told our guys I liked our game plan, I liked how we executed in practice all week long and our focus tonight, but it came down to them executing on third downs. They elongated their drives and we didn't," Calvert coach Mike Lento said. "We had some dropped passes, we missed some blocks, but we knew it would be this kind of game. "Yeah, that opening drive was a great first drive by them and hats off to them for their fifth straight championship, but again, it came down to executing and not executing."Needing something out of the half to put any pressure on the Chieftains, Calvert went three-and-out. On the ensuing H-L drive, it converted a third and fourth down before Martinez took a handoff 17 yards for a score. The Wade Kreais extra point was good, putting the Chieftains ahead 26-0.In the end, Calvert only had two four downs."So, in six league games this year, our defense only gave up two touchdowns, that's phenomenal," Colatruglio said. "They've been the heart of our team all year. Our offense has been finding its way, but our defense has been the backbone of our team. Getting another shutout tonight really showed how much that defense means to us."Both teams will have a Week 11, but H-L will surely be a home game, but Calvert will have to wait and find out if its home or away next week."The good news is we're not going home. We get to get up in the morning, watch some film, tighten some screws and we'll see where we'll land. The third season is about to start and we've got an opportunity to go execute. "Our guys have responded all year after we kinda had a mishap … we respond. I'm looking forward to see how the guys respond."