By Grace Pohl
Staff Intern 

CHS football rally falls short in 33-27 loss to North Central

 

Last updated 9/14/2017 at 9:51am

Grace Pohl

Senior running back Charles Johnson was all over the field for the Cheney Blackhawks versus North Central.

Due to the smoke filled air, the Cheney High School football team's game was delayed by one day and took place last Saturday afternoon against Greater Spokane League's North Central where the Blackhawks rallied from behind but eventually fell 33-27.

"As far as effort, the boys did great," head coach Bobby Byrd said. "It was a wacky situation with it being a mid-day rescheduled game, but it came down to the team with less mistakes and North Central did a great job at that."

The start of the game was not in Cheney's favor as they fumbled the ball on their first possession which led to the Indian's scoring a rushing touchdown by their quarterback, Jake Healey, putting NC on the board 7-0.

The next possession for the Blackhawks went the same way as the ball was fumbled and North Central scored another rushing touchdown by running back Kade Garvey, and just like that Cheney trailed 14-0.

"We started off slow and picked it up after the first quarter," Byrd said. "If we hadn't made so many errors, we had a pretty good ball game."

North Central wouldn't stop there as the team scored another rushing and passing touchdown, making it 26-0 with five minutes left in the second quarter.

The Blackhawks would eventually respond with about three minutes left in the half when Charles Johnson ran to the end zone from about the two yard line, closing it to 26-7.

Cheney kept pounding away at the deficit as quarterback Cole Hinrichs connected with wide receiver Camden Verstrate with 12 seconds left in the second quarter, making it 26-14 going into halftime.

In the third quarter, Johnson had an 80-yard punt return touchdown that made it a one possession game, 26-20, with the point after touchdown (PAT) being blocked.

North Central responded with a rushing touchdown with about 10 minutes left in the game, pushing their lead to 33-20.

CHS still didn't give up as Hinrichs threw a touchdown pass to Max Pierson with seven minutes left in the game, making it 33-27.

Defense then forced a three and out for North Central, giving the Blackhawks the ball again with Johnson and running back Logan Kendall getting back-to-back first downs.

"Charles had a great game," Byrd said. "Logan Kendall had a couple more touches too. Having the ability to get Charles down the field and then pound them with Logan Kendall, it is a great combo."

Johnson made a clutch run on fourth and four to keep the drive alive with three minutes left and for a first and goal. Johnson ended the game with 16 carries for 138 yards and two touchdowns.

Hinrichs connected with Luke Martin in the end zone, but was called back by the officials because he was out of bounds, eventually making it fourth and goal. Kendall was given the ball and climbed to the 1-yard line but NC stood him up.

There was about two minutes left in the game when the defense showed up again and forced another three and out for NC, giving the Blackhawks one last chance to win the ball game.

Hinrichs connected with Verstrate to move the chains to the NC 15 yard line with 20 seconds left. But it was followed by incomplete passes to Kendall and Martin as the clock hit zero.

"The first thing I said to the boys was how proud I was," Byrd said. "They showed great character and battled. It came down to the last series and that showed grit. I am very happy with that and there are lots of positives for the game besides the mark in the loss column."

With this loss, the Blackhawks are now 0-2 but have not started league play yet. The next game is Friday, Sept. 15 at Post Falls with a kick off time of 7 p.m.

"We improved quarter by quarter, it is just a matter of putting four quarters together now," Byrd added.

Grace Pohl can be reached at grace@cheneyfreepress.com.

 

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