Senior Garrett Chadwell and juniors Cody Houseman and Diezel Taylor each scored touchdowns as the Jets pulled away in the second half, beating Catholic Central 20-7 in an Ohio Heritage Conference crossover division matchup on Friday night at Hallinean Field.
“We knew that they were going to be extremely well-coached,” Buchholtz said. “You only play 11 guys on the field and it doesn’t matter if you have 17 guys or 77 guys, we knew that their 11 were going to be pretty physical with us. In the first half, we didn’t do a lot of good things up front and we made some corrections at halftime. I thought we came out and did what we needed to do to get a win.”
Junior Jackson Jones rushed for 114 yards on 21 carries for Northeastern, which improved to 2-1. Defensively, Houseman led Northeastern with 11.5 tackles and 3.5 sacks.
Catholic Central junior Brayden Strother returned an interception 75 yards for a touchdown and went 6-for-8 for 96 yards through the air, while junior Berkley Little caught four passes for 81 yards for the Irish (2-1).
“I’m always proud of the effort,” said Irish coach Jim Dimitroff. “That was the expectation, but I’m tired of giving effort. I want to get some wins on the board.”
The Irish stopped Northeastern on its opening possession and drove deep into Jets territory, but penalties set Catholic Central back, ending the threat.
On the last play of the first quarter, Strother’s interception return gave the Irish a 7-0 lead.
Northeastern responded midway through the second quarter, converting two fourth-down plays that led to a 14-yard TD run by Taylor. The score was tied 7-7 at the half.
“I thought in the first half that we were the better football team,” Dimitroff said. “I know it was tied up, but I thought we were playing better than they were. In the second half, they came out and muscled us and wore us down. I think we kind of self-imploded there at times, especially on offense. We had a lot of penalties and holding calls and things like that hurt us, killed some drives, especially in the first half.”
After Catholic Central went three-and-out to open the second half, the Jets turned to its power run game. Northeastern scored on a 14-yard reverse by Chadwell to take the lead for good.
“A win is a win, but we started off slow and we can’t do that,” Chadwell said. “We knew that they weren’t going to roll over at the beginning and we just came out and we played sloppy. We’ve just got to own it, turn around next week and come in ready to fight.”
The Jets tacked on six more points in the fourth quarter. After a 39-yard run by Jones, Houseman scored on a 5-yard run to make it 20-7 with about 11 minutes remaining.
The Irish rushed for 260 yards in the game.
“I thought we wore them down tonight and that’s a credit to the work we put in in the weight room in the offseason,” Buchholtz said. “I was proud of them.”
The Jets host Greenon (0-3) next Friday night.
Catholic Central travels to Fairbanks (1-2) next week. The Panthers beat Cedarville 38-12 on Friday night, giving former Urbana coach Dave Carroll his first victory at Fairbanks.
“They’re going to be well-coached,” Dimitroff said. “We’re 2-1 right now. We’ll see if we’re up to the challenge and that’s what I told the kids. You can’t let the one loss judge what you do from here on out.”
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