Charleston football team runs over Chaffee 50-8

CHAFFEE -- The Charleston Bluejays were looking for momentum they could use heading into the first week of district play.

They found it against the Chaffee Red Devils on Friday night.

The Bluejays, who finished the regular season at 7-2, will head into the Class 2 District 1 tournament as the third seed behind top-seeded Caruthersville and No. 2 Malden next week after polishing off the Red Devils 50-8.

Charleston, which matched its highest win total since 2005, will play host to Grandview on Oct. 25. for their first home playoff game since 2007.

"We needed some momentum going into the playoffs," Charleston coach Brett Blackman said. "What's key for us is to not get caught up in our seeding situation, because it's tight. Right now, we just know that if we keep on winning, we keep on playing."

Chaffee’s Jimmy Golden, left, stares down Charleston’s Sumner Foster, center, after Foster intercepted a pass in the end zone Friday at Chaffee High School. (Chris Pobst ~ Standard-Democrat)

Chaffee, which fell to 3-6, is the sixth seed of Class 1 District 1 and will travel to third-seeded Thayer (5-4) this week.

"I thought we played extremely hard," Chaffee coach Charlie Vickery said. "Our guys fought hard and didn't back down."

The Bluejays gained 521 total yards, with the bulk of that stemming from their multi-weapon running game that torched the ground for 468 yards.

Junior Robert Bogan, who surpassed 1,000 rushing yards Friday, had a game-high 176 yards on 17 carries and also hauled in quarterback Mike Hull's only touchdown throw from 14 yards out in the first quarter.

Sophomore Rontavious Clark added another 105 yards on the ground on 14 touches.

"We're starting to use all of our backs a little more right now," said Blackman. "Rontavious is kind of hitting full stride right now, Robert scored some more touchdowns tonight, and we're planning on riding those horses in the playoffs and see how far it takes us."

Hull was 4 of 8 passing for 53 yards and with one interception.

The senior also carried the ball 10 times for 64 yards and converted on long-yardage situations when the Bluejays needed them.

"If he uses his athleticism and reads the defense like we need him to, he has a pretty high completion rate," Blackman said. "We don't throw the ball a lot, but if he does those things and we need him to, we're OK. He does a good job for us.

"We're not always going to be able to go in tight. He's doing a good job of managing the offense for us."

The game got out of hand when the Bluejays ran off 26 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. Chaffee trailed 24-0 at halftime and by 16 points after the third quarter.

A safety by Charleston's Darrion Carter followed by a 32-yard touchdown run by Bogan solidified the outcome. The Bluejays then tacked on two long touchdown runs from Rontavious and Demontrial Clark.

"I thought we had them stopped several times. We just didn't finish the play," Vickery said. "[It was] 24-8 going into the fourth quarter. It wasn't a 50-8 ball game."

The Bluejays had to battle back from a minor setback that occurred on the first play of the game.

Receiving the kickoff, Charleston failed to cover the short kick and allowed Chaffee to gain possession.

The Red Devils had prime position to score early but threw an interception just a few plays later. That led to the Bluejays' first score -- a 14-yard pass to Bogan from Hull.

"After [the muffed kickoff] we got everybody focused on the sideline and coach talked to us," Hull said. "The leadership stepped up and talked to everybody. We showed good leadership tonight."

"I thought we came out a little flat, and I was a little disappointed with that," Blackman said. "Because, everything we're playing for now is for keeps. We were playing for a 7-2 season -- 7-2 sounds a lot better than 6-3."

Rontavious Clark punched in a goal-line score to give the Bluejays a 16-0 lead with under a minute left in the first quarter. Charleston didn't score again until late in the second quarter when Hull scrambled from 8 yards to put the score at 24-0 going into the break.

"We didn't cash in the first time we got the ball. We fumbled and could have got some momentum there," Vickery said about recovering the first kickoff of the game.

The Red Devils got their first points in the third quarter, sparked by an interception by Charlie Montgomery.

Following the pick, quarterback Peyton Montgomery hit his favorite receiver, Layton Tenkhoff, with a short dump-off to the right side. Tenkhoff did the rest. The shifty junior bounced off a barrage of tacklers and eluded the remaining few as he zipped up the sideline for a 35-yard touchdown.

The score cut the lead to 24-8, but Chaffee couldn't get anything going thereafter.

The Red Devils managed to stop the Bluejays with a goal-line stand to take over the ball inches from their own end zone, but Charleston's Darrion Carter pulled down Chaffee's ball carrier for a safety to go up 26-2 just moments later.

Robert Bogan ran for a 32-yard touchdown on the first play following the free kick after the safety.

"I think we played pretty good, except the first half we could have played a little bit better," Hull said. "But I'm glad our team came out the second half and stepped it up."

Peyton Montgomery completed 9 of 18 passes for 105 yards but threw four interceptions. Tenkhoff caught four passes for 76 yards.

Charleston 50, Chaffee 8

Charleston 16 8 0 26 -- 50

Chaffee 0 0 8 0 -- 8

First Quarter

CHAR -- Mike Hull 14 pass to Robert Bogan (Rontavious Clark run), 7:53

CHAR -- Rontavious Clark 2 run (Deiontrail Winston run), 0:49

Second Quarter

CHAR -- Hull 8 run (Hull to Clark), 0:42

Third Quarter

CHAF -- Peyton Montgomery 35 pass to Layton Tenkhoff (Montgomery to Tenkhoff), 6:54

Fourth Quarter

CHAR -- Safety (Darrion Carter), 10:53

CHAR -- Bogan 32 run (Bogan run), 10:38

CHAR -- Clark 37 run (Winston run), 4:41

CHAR -- Demontrail Clark 60 run (Hull run), 2:40

CHAR CHAF

First downs 16 9

Total yards 521 181

Rushes-yards 55-468 28-76

Passing 53 105

Comp-Att-Int 4-8-1 9-18-4

Fumbles-lost 4-1 3-0

Penalties-yards 3-35 2-20

Punts-yards 1-28 4-157

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing -- Charleston, Mike Hull 10-64, Robert Bogan 17-176, Rontavious Clark 14-105, Deiontrail Winston 10-56, Demontrail Clark 4-67. Chaffee -- Peyton Montgomery 8-20, Charlie Montgomery 7-13, Jimmy Golden 7-30, Devon Yahn 1-(-4), Thomas Robbins 5-17.

Passing -- Charleston, Mike Hull 4-8-1 53. Chaffee, Peyton Montgomery 9-18-4 105.

Receiving -- Charleston, Robert Bogan 1-14, Sumner Foster 2-23, Darrion Carter 1-16. Chaffee, Charlie Montgomery 1-2, Layton Tenkhoff 4-76, Jimmy Golden 3-10, Devon Yahn 1-18.