by Drenched by a steady downpour that plagued the game the entire evening, Chardon coach Mitch Hewitt had a very honest assessment of his son Caleb after the running back led Chardon to a dominant victory Friday over host Avon Lake.
Caleb Hewitt had 105 yards in receptions and 97 yards on the ground, scoring two touchdowns as the Hilltoppers upped their record to 3-0 with a 28-7 road victory. Avon Lake is now 1-2.
“I’m proud of him,” Mitch Hewitt said of his son. “He’s more talented than me. He’s come a long way. I’m not an easy guy to live with. We’ve had some long nights and some long bus rides. I’ve been hard on him, probably. I’m glad to see him have some success. But he’s got to become a better leader. When things go bad in the second half, I need his voice to circle the wagons better.”
Neither team accomplished much in the second half of the rain-soaked encounter, but Caleb Hewitt helped Chardon take a 21-7 halftime lead with TD runs of 34 and 5 yards. He also had two long pass receptions from quarterback Drayton Allgood of 46 and 51 yards, both of which came during scoring drives.
“He’s a great player,” Avon Lake coach Matt Kostelnik said. “He can fly.”
While the offense was carried by Caleb Hewitt and Allgood, who passed for 105 yards and rushed for 114 yards and touchdowns of 27 and 20 yards on 20 carries, Chardon’s defense was even more impressive. The Hilltoppers held Avon Lake to just 87 yards of offense for the game and had 10 plays from scrimmage that resulted in negative yardage.
The Shoremen were handicapped by the loss last week of quarterback Alex Affolter, who broke his hand in a loss to Benedictine. Replacement Owen Fach had some good moments and led the team with 47 rushing yards, but overall, the offense managed just three first downs on the night.
“I know what the stats say, but we had our opportunities,” Kostelnik said. “I thought our quarterback made great reads. Our timing is just off and it’s going to take some time. Hopefully it’s going to take less time. Hopefully we’ll be able to move the ball a little bit better than we did tonight.”
Chardon’s defense was very aware of the Avon Lake running attack, figuring that a new quarterback was unlikely to heave the ball around the field, especially on a rainy night. Junior linebacker Jayden Buth stood out for the Hilltoppers with several tackles for loss.
“Defensively, they were playing without their quarterback, so we prepared for the run tonight,” Mitch Hewitt said. “Our run defense is lights out. Our run defense is good enough to win a state title. We haven’t had a chance to see our pass defense and our secondary, but we have people back there that we like. Defensively, we played really well.”
Hewitt was less than pleased with his team’s offense, especially in the second half. Five times in the final 24 minutes the Hilltoppers started drives in Avon Lake territory but only came away with one touchdown. There were several penalties and fumbles—although none were lost—that negated some big offensive plays.
“Our offense and our kicking game in the second half was about as bad as you can find,” Hewitt said. “I’m really disappointed in our execution. I know this is less than ideal conditions, but we have to find ways to overcome, and I don’t know if we did that in the second half tonight. Our offense at times shows moments of brilliance, but there are too many self-destructive plays that against a Bishop Watterson in two weeks, we’re going to get our faces kicked in.”
There was an offensive explosion early in the second quarter, but otherwise the teams struggled with the conditions. Chardon opened the scoring on a 27-yard option keeper by Allgood, taking a 7-0 lead with 1:34 remaining in the first quarter. On Avon Lake’s third play following the ensuing kickoff, the Shoremen lost a fumble, with Matthew McIlroy recovering for Chardon on the Avon Lake 34-yard line.
On the very next play, Caleb Hewitt sped to the end zone untouched on a motion sweep to the left side, making it 14-0. Chardon’s kickoff was fielded at the 7-yard line Avon Lake’s Aiden Stewart, who showed some speed of his own, taking the ball up the left sideline on the way to a 93-yard touchdown, giving the Shoremen some life with a 14-7 deficit.
However, the Shoremen never managed to put together any kind of drive for the entire night and had just 18 yards of offense in the second half.
Despite the offensive struggles and a second consecutive loss, Kostelnik said there were some positives that came out of the game.
“Hats off to the Hilltoppers,” he said. “They did what they do. They took advantage of some big plays and some turnovers. They executed well on offense, and they played some tough defense. Mitch’s teams always come ready to play. I thought we fought for four quarters. There were two big plays in the first half that killed us and turnovers killed us. At the end of the day, we came out and fought hard. I saw a ton of fight tonight and that’s what we need to focus on as we get ready for conference play.”
Chardon does not play again until Sept. 20 when the Hilltoppers host Columbus Bishop Watterson, last year’s state runner-up in Division III. Avon Lake opens Southwestern Conference play next Friday at Berea-Midpark.
Player of the game (Chardon): Caleb Hewitt. The senior running back had more than 200 yards of offense and scored twice.
Player of the game (Avon Lake): Owen Fach. In his first game as a starting quarterback, the senior led a struggling offense with 47 yards rushing and 17 yards passing.
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