Oct 18, 2013 4 min read

HOUSTON – Momentum in football can swing from series to series, play to play. For an example, look at Friday’s Class A Black Hills Conference game between Chartiers-Houston and Monessen.

Facing almost a must-win situation, the Bucs earned a terrific opportunity to take control of a 7-7 contest when Wyatt Kincaid recovered a Monessen fumble near midfield early in the second quarter. Chartiers-Houston had already held a 7-0 lead off a 70-yard drive, so coach Terry Fetsko knew his team could move the ball against Monessen.

Instead, a disastrous series awaited the Bucs, it ended up being Monessen that scored, and the Greyhounds went on to a 38-7 rout Friday, putting Chartiers-Houston in a tough situation to qualify for the WPIAL playoffs.

“Wins, losses, and playoffs will take care of themselves,” Fetsko said. “We’re worried about playing hard every game. You control how you play that week, and whatever happens at the end happens. We’re going out to win, I can tell you that.”

After the Kincaid fumble recovery, Fetsko tried to catch Monessen (7-1, 8-1) off guard with a trick play, with quarterback Kaleb Susko tossing a backwards pass to Miles Williamson, who would then throw downfield for Doug DiNardo.

That was the plan. The execution did not match what was drawn up.

Susko’s pass bounced to Williamson, who immediately had pressure in his face. He managed to get the pass off into double coverage, and thankfully for the Bucs, it fell incomplete. But that just started the trouble for Chartiers-Houston (5-3, 6-3.)

On the next play, Susko attempted a handoff to Williamson, but the exchange was bobbled and Williamson had to fall on the ball for a three-yard loss. On third down, Susko’s pass was in and out of the hands of a Monessen defender.

Couldn’t get worse than that, right? Wrong.

Javon Brown, who earlier had a 53-yard touchdown run, proceeded to return the ensuing punt 89 yards for a tiebreaking touchdown and give Monessen a 14-7 lead.

“I didn’t think that was a crushing sequence,” said Fetsko. “We know they can make plays anywhere at any time.”

In a way, Fetsko was right. Monessen’s offense had mostly been kept in check by the Bucs’ defense, and the Greyhounds later failed to score from a first-and-goal situation. At least, with their offense.

On the first play after Chartiers-Houston forced a turnover on downs at their 1-yard line, Monessen trapped Spencer Terling in the end zone for a safety and a 16-7 lead.

“They got penetration. I don’t care what you run. It wouldn’t have mattered,” said Fetsko. “They made another play when they needed to make a play.”

The score remained that way at halftime, and the Bucs began the second half with the football, but the Monessen defense would not allow a repeat of that first drive and stifled Chartiers-Houston offensively.

And it was only a matter of time until the Greyhounds broke containment, and that’s what they did.

A fourth-and-18 pass set up a Clintell Gillaspie touchdown, a 74-yard completion to Gillaspie opened the door for Brown’s third touchdown of the game, and Irvin Green’s interception led immediately to a fourth Brown touchdown.

In a 9:39 span, Monessen’s lead ballooned to 38-7.

“A couple of times we had opportunities to make big plays, and it just didn’t happen tonight,” said Fetsko, “and that’s part of football. Teams that make the plays in the key situations usually win.”

Gillaspie entered the game with 659 yards rushing on the season and was held to 49 yards on 15 carries. Brown (544 yards on the season) gained 74 yards on 12 attempts, with most of them coming on his 53-yard touchdown run. But the big plays those two were able to break proved to be the difference.

The loss puts the Bucs a half-game ahead of Brentwood (4-3, 4-4), which plays at 2-6 Bishop Canevin tonight, for the fourth and last playoff spot from the Black Hills Conference. Chartiers-Houston travels to co-leader Fort Cherry next week. Brentwood closes with a road game at 4-4 California.

The Spartans defeated the Bucs in Week 5, meaning if the teams are tied at the end of the season, Brentwood will qualify for the playoffs and Chartiers-Houston will be out.

“We’ll just go back to work,” said Fetsko. “I don’t know what the outcome will be (next week), but I know the kids are gonna play hard.”