Oct 30, 2015 4 min read

McDONALD – Entering the final week of the regular season, the Chartiers-Houston football team had an easy path to the playoffs.

Win against rival Fort Cherry, and the Bucs were in. Nice and simple. A loss could’ve resulted in Char-Houston qualifying, but the Bucs would have needed Northgate to lose.

It took a little while, but they made sure it wouldn’t come to that.

Capitalizing on several Fort Cherry mistakes, Chartiers-Houston clinched the final playoff spot from the Black Hillls Conference, rolling to a 39-0 victory Friday night at Jim Garry Stadium. It is the second straight year the Bucs have reached the playoffs.

“It’s nice going in with some momentum and with a win, not backing in,” said Bucs head coach Terry Fetsko. “We wanted to take care of business and not have to wait on someone to win or lose. The time you want to be playing your best football is going into the playoffs, and we are.”

In a way, the final score was misleading, as the first half nearly went scoreless, despite the Bucs (4-3, 5-4) taking the opening kickoff 61 yards to start deep in Fort Cherry territory. That possession ended with placekicker Mike Cushma missing a field goal after slipping on the muddy field.

From there, neither team’s offense could get much going, until a mistake by Fort Cherry (2-5, 2-7) opened the door for the Bucs. A fumble gave Char-Houston the ball at the Fort Cherry 26.

For the second time in the game, Chartiers-Houston drove inside the 10 and proceeded to lose yardage, but this time Cushma’s field goal from 25 yards was clean, and the Bucs took a 3-0 lead with 3:57 left in the half.

That started a streak of 25 points scored by Char-Houston in a span of 5 minutes.

Following a 15-yard punt on Fort Cherry’s next possession, Fetsko wasted no time, calling for a deep strike on first down, and T.J. Johnston connected with Ethan Shober for a 38-yard touchdown.

“We felt we could get behind them there,” said Fetsko. “T.J. made a great throw and Ethan made a great catch. That was a big, big boost.”

That duo proved to be a potent combination for the Bucs.

After a quick three-and-out, Char-Houston, aided by a Fort Cherry personal foul penalty, drove 54 yards in 48 seconds, with Johnston and Shober combining for another touchdown, this one from 6 yards out.

Another Fort Cherry disaster was narrowly averted. After calling timeout with 8 seconds remaining in the half and the ball at the Rangers’ 26, the Bucs’ R.J. Hall intercepted Devon Brown’s pass. He nearly scored but was shoved out of bounds just short of the end zone.

The turnovers then started to snowball for the Rangers in the second half. The third of six giveaways gave Chartiers-Houston the ball at the Ranger 30, and Spencer Terling’s 23-yard run and a 2-point conversion run by Tyrone Wormsley gave the Bucs a 25-0 lead.

“All night we had a short field, which makes it easier for play calling,” said Fetsko. “It opens up your offense a little bit.”

Given the way the Bucs’ defense played (6 first downs allowed, 117 total yards) that lead was more than enough to hold up.

Johnston completed 13 of 20 passes for 168 yards and three touchdowns. Shober caught five passes for 82 yards. Wormsley ran a punt back 55 yards for a touchdown and also totaled 78 yards of offense on 12 touches.

“It’s been a tough ride this year,” said Rangers coach Jim Shiel. “We expected to do better than what we did. We have some young players, and when they make mistakes, it really hurts.”

Hall had a pair of interceptions for the Bucs.