Special teams had led Chillicothe to a (3-0) start this season, but state power Bishop Hartley turned the tables on the Cavaliers, creating three special teams turnovers to help beat the Cavs 49-10 Friday night.
Chillicothe came out strong forcing a quick Hartley fumble on the first play of the game and turning it into 7 points on a 23 yard drive. Adrian Beverly ran it in from one yard out. Cavs corner Joey Wright picked-off a Hartley pass on the next possession as Chillicothe completely controlled the Hawks early on.
Momentum changed at the end of the first quarter when the Cavaliers snapped the ball over their punter’s head and set up Hartley at the Cavs 31. 220 pound tailback Jalen January bulldozed in from 20 yards out and it was 7-7 after one period.
Mistakes continued to hurt the Cavs as three 15 yard penalties help set up Hartley’s only second quarter score. A 12 yard pass to Kirkbride put the Hawks up 14-7.
Chillicothe would come right back and drive from their own 25 to Hartley’s 8 yard line. With no timeouts, Matt Detty kicked a 32 yard field goal and the Cavs went to half trailing only 14-10.
The entire game changed in three minutes of the third quarter. Chillicothe went three and out and Hartley blocked J’Quan Harris’ punt, recovering at the Cavs 15.
A four yard TD run by the Hawks, a recovered on side kick, a 26 yard touchdown scamper by January, and a 73 yard run by Hawk quarterback Miles Fleming produced 21 Hartley points in just over three minutes.
All of a sudden it was 35-10 Hartley and Chillicothe was a bit stunned. The Cavaliers never got any offense rolling in the second half and wound up with no first downs in the final two quarters.
Hartley tacked on two more scores including a final touchdown with their first offense on the field with three minutes in the game and up 42-10.
Coach Ron Hinton felt the Hawks wore his Cavs down but was extremely proud of the defensive effort against a huge Hawk line and 3 running backs that went 220 to 230 pounds. “We have to fix our punting game. You can’t hike the ball over the punter and then allow an untouched rusher to block a punt, “stated Hinton. “We will get that fixed.”
The Cavaliers were a bit beat up and lost three or four starters during the game. Chillicothe will try to heal up a bit and get ready to travel to Logan next Friday with a (3-1) record. Logan fell to Sheridan on Friday night.
To hear the play-by-play call on News Radio WBEX with Greg Bigam and Tom Beard, go to our podcast link found below...