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Stir that pot ?
Culture and work ethic are a thing. And the kids buy into it. Half time of the Canfield game there was a sign on the wall in the locker room/weight room that said “Everyone wants to be a beast … Until it’s time to do what real beasts do.” Chardon's JV and Freshman players read that sign, stripped off their shoulder pads and got in a lift. When they asked Hewitt about it his response was “We have to find opportunities for continuous improvement,” Hewitt said. “We have a rule in our weight room that you can’t sit down. Those guys were in the weight room, so they didn’t sit down. They got better. They got in a lift.
Agree with you on a few things here, Dover and also Canfield could have made things more difficult on Chardon “if” they made routine plays. Plays that have to be made at this point in the season in order to compete and win. That’s said, both Dover and Canfield still lose by 2 scores minimum, IMO. I’ve watched Chardon all year and when a team gets a first down on Chardon, their fans cheer like they just scored a touchdown. That is the kind of respect Chardons D has earned. I wouldn’t call their secondary a weakness from a personnel perspective. Maybe by alignment, coverage but there are no kids in D3 that are better athletes in the secondary. And…..2 are Sophomore’s and 1 is a Junior. Scary!
Have to agree with @ColdWindBlows here … a lot of pass-first teams have come to Chardon and planned to throw all over the field, and the results speak for themselves. Glenville, Riverside, Ursuline (who had some success in the 2nd half), Kenston, Akron East all thought the same thing … we can thrown against this secondary. But they couldn’t.
Chardon has 21 interceptions this year. I can't remember ever having that many picks om a season. Ursuline was scary when their kid got it going after Chardon had opened up a 33-7 lead - but no one else this year was. The corners are the best athletes on the team and their safeties are long, fast and also great athletes. They are all multi-sport kids and football may not be their best game. Sulka is headed to Youngstown State and was offered by Iowa State last year. Anyone who thinks the Hilltopper secondary is vulnerable based on five or six plays hasn't seen enough of them this year.
No I haven’t seen much of Chardon this year. But I saw opportunities for Dover; they didn’t capitalize. Chardon is good, very good. But they aren’t invulnerable.
Maurise Clarett also started freshman year at Austintown Fitch before he transferred to Warren G Harding for High school football…..
Ursuline’s QB does a good job moving Safety’s with his eyes… the one TD pass on the seam route against Chardon is a great example. Not many QB do that well in high school, though. 21 INT’s is crazy… I suspect a lot of that is from teams coming from behind. I saw in 1 interview the Sulka kid saying “ I was just reading his eyes” after a pick six this year. Him and #24 have good instincts and are long.
Nobody is invulnerable. But the Dover game came down to who could run the football and who could stop the run - like most games in northeast Ohio in November.
And you can’t score if you don’t have the football. 6,7,8 minute ball control drives are hugely important to Chardon’s last 2 victories … they score on the majority of their possessions, and limit how many opportunities the other team has. At Canfield (and yes, it was a home game for Canfield) Chardon was up 14-0 and Canfield had only run 3 plays and it was already the second quarter. That type of start to a game is demoralizing to an opponent.
YOU NAILED IT. I LOOK FOR CHARDON TO WIN, BUT I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF THE KNIGHT'S MAKE A GAME OF IT.
123 is trying to make up for his hot takes in the St Edward vs Medina thread. Pun intended.
I don’t think so
And get crushed? This shows how out of touch chardon fans are
And yet he is NOT another Chardon fan. I hope they put a running clock up. Just so all the not Chardon fans can come on here and throw it in your face. You’ve judged a community from day 1 based off comments from not Chardon people. 35-14 if it’s closer I’ll be here to give credit. A running clock could happen and I’ll be here to say F you and your judgement on us.
There are years that Chardon could definitely compete with Hoban. Our freshmen team lost to them last year in a game that was basically even. This year's freshmen were beating Ignatius and lost on a 4th and 15 Hail Mary in the last minute and then drove 60 yards in about 40 seconds to almost win it. When those two classes are seniors and juniors, the Hilltoppers will be able to compete with anybody in the state and not get embarrassed. We played Ed's four years in a row beating them once and losing the other three. 2 of the 3 losses were close games and one was a beat down. Chardon's only win over Ed's was a 27-0 win in 1998. Because some teams in our league have decided not to have freshmen teams, our freshmen have ended up scheduling Ed's, Hoban, Ignatius, Medina, Glenville, Fitch, etc., etc. over the past couple of years. There have been no blowouts and a couple of Chardon wins. Next year's varsity scheduling is even more of a nightmare. In any event, the reason that the Hilltoppers would not want to play these guys year in and year out is because we play with our own kids. Whatever the name of that factor is that the OHSAA uses to determine increase enrollment numbers for purposes of assigning teams to a certain division - Chardon's is zero; meaning we play with our own kids from our own community. They've grown up together and played together since youth football for the most part. I don't know who is or isn't a Chardon fan on here. All that I know is the Hilltoppers will show up in Twinsburg ready to go with an emphasis on violence, execution, and winning collisions. It's been that way for 40 years from the day that Bob Doyle was hired. There aren't many, if any, public schools that have a more consistent track record over a longer period of time. In any event, I'm sure that West Holmes will show up as well. They are 14-0 for a reason.