High school football: Chardon continues its ascension, will face Youngstown Ursuline for regional title
Nov. 11—Coach Mitch Hewitt had a message for his Chardon football team as they filtered in for a Saturday morning film session back on Sept. 23.
Barely 12 hours had passed since Kenston hung a 31-21 loss on Chardon to drop the Hilltoppers' record to an uncharacteristic 3-3, which was more losses than the program had sustained in the past three years combined.
Hewitt's message — Chardon had the potential to be the best Division III team in the state if it started to play like it.
Seven weeks have passed since that morning, and Hewitt's words have come to fruition. When the Hilltoppers head into Ravenna Stadium on Nov. 17 for a Division III, Region 9 championship game against Youngstown Ursuline, they will do so on a seven-game winning streak in which they have outscored the opposition, 279-44.
Chardon is coming off a dominating 31-7 win over Aurora in a regional quarterfinal. It's the second week in a row the Hilltoppers have defeated a higher-seeded team. Now the seventh-seeded Hilltoppers have their sights set on undefeated and top-ranked Ursuline, a 27-20 winner over VASJ in another semifinal on Nov. 10.
"They've been the favorite in the region all year," said Hewitt, the master at playing the underdog card, "and they've backed it up. Their record speaks for itself. They have all the parts and pieces and go at lightning speed. As soon as the referee sets the ball down, they're ready to snap it and to."
All lauding aside, though, Hewitt knows what he has in his team. It's the team knew thought — and knew — he had back when he challenged his team on Sept. 23.
"Right now," Hewitt said, "we feel the only team in the state in Division III that can beat us is ourselves. I think every coach says that. But at the end of the day, your livelihood is in the hands of 16-year-old adolescent males."
Hewitt's "adolescent males" have answered his challenge. In the win over Aurora, expected to be a defensive struggle and physical slugfest the game — well — wasn't one. Chardon led, 31-0, before the Greenmen got on the board as both lines of scrimmage were owned by the Hilltoppers.
Penalties and turnovers, which plagued the Hilltoppers in regular-season losses to Tiffin Columbian, Bishop Watterson and Kenston — all state-ranked teams — have been remedied. It came with hard, brutal work.
"We had a great week in practice," Hewitt said. "We really got after it. It wasn't enjoyable for a lot of people. We do that more than most teams. No high-fives and telling them how great they are — that's what moms and fans do. As a staff, we point out our shortcomings. Our kids respond to that. They don't resist it. You can resist hard coaching and our kids don't do that."
After the hard week of practice, Hewitt and his staff were supremely confident against an Aurora team that had 10 in a row since a Week 2 loss to Riverside.
"We just won up front," Hewitt said. "I told our kids, if our line played like they were capable of, it wouldn't be close. What we feared most was Aurora's coaching staff. That's a great staff. But our kids responded."
Now the Hilltoppers are one win away from being back in the state final four after a regional final loss to Canfield last year snapped Chardon's streak of back-to-back state championships in 2020 and 2021.
Chardon is one of three area teams still alive for state championships along with Perry and Kirtland.
Undefeated Perry (13-0) will face South Range in a Division V, Region 17 championship game on Nov. 17 at Streetsboro. It's a rematch of last year's regional championship game won by South Range en route to the Raiders' state championship.
Kirtland (12-1) will face Mogadore in the Division VI, Region 21 championship game on Nov. 17 at Nordonia's Boliantz Stadium. That, too, is a rematch of last year's regional championship game won by the Hornets, 30-0, in a game that was also held at Nordonia.
"Anybody who knows anything about football knows how great the Mogadore program is," Coach Tiger LaVerde said. "They're well-coached and play the game right. They run the ball well and play good defense. In that respect, it's kind of like looking in the mirror.
'We knew this might be who we'd play if we made it this far. They did their part, we did our part. I figured we'd be playing Mogadore again."
