For the Berkshire Badgers football team, it came down to a matter of inches. The Badgers fell short against Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division and Geauga County rival Chagrin Falls in a 25-24 overtime thriller last Friday evening at Great Lakes Cheese Stadium in Burton.
“It was a great game,” said Coach Josh DeWeese. “It was exciting. We left a lot of stuff out there, as coaches we want to take advantage of situations a little bit better, that is on me. At the end of the day, they played a heck of a football game.”
It marked the end of the Badgers’ (4-4, 3-2) two-year winning streak against Chagrin Falls, which scored its first victory against Berkshire for the first time since the 2023 campaign. Berkshire’s first league loss of the season will make it more challenging for the Badgers to earn a postseason berth in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division V postseason.
On Friday, the league rivals traded scorer throughout the second half, with the game being determined by several key plays down the stretch.
With the score tied 18-18, Chagrin Falls received the ball with 4:13 remaining in regulation on its 40 and engineered a seven-play drive that took the Tigers to the Badgers’ 25, setting up a game-winning field goal attempt.
The Badgers’ defense stood tall, blocking senior kicker Ben Ettinger’s 42-yard field goal attempt, sending the game into overtime.
Per the OHSAA rules of overtime, each team begins on the 20 and will have a chance to score. If the first team scores a touchdown, the opposing team would have to score a touchdown on their drive to prolong the game. If the first team did not score or only scored a field goal, the second team needed to outscore the opposing team to clinch victory.
The Tigers struck first, as junior quarterback Max Frankel delivered a 12-yard touchdown strike to senior tailback/linebacker Cody Staples, pushing Chagrin Falls ahead 25-18.
Berkshire responded swiftly on the ensuing drive, when senior quarterback/defensive back Oliver Miller scored on a two-yard run.
The Badgers had the option to tie the game on the extra point kick, but the 14-year coach said that there was no hesitation in opting to attempt a two-point conversion to seal the victory.
Berkshire had previously attempted a pair of two-point conversions in the game, but each had been unsuccessful.
On the Badgers’ third attempt, Miller rolled to his left and found an open receiver and completed the pass senior wide receiver/defensive back Dasen Marker but Marker fell out of bounds before crossing the goal line, and the Tigers claimed the 25-24 victory.
Berkshire’s potential game-winning drive came up short, but DeWeese noted how resilient his team had been in the second half, scoring 18 points after recording only six points in the first half on an interception by junior tight end/linebacker Estovan Huesca who intercepted the 6-foot-2 Frankel on the Tigers opening drive and returned the ball for a 14-yard touchdown, pushing Berkshire ahead 6-0 after the extra point was blocked.
“You want to start any game out that way so that is a great way to start but we just have to back it up,” DeWeese added. “It would have been nice to get some more points in the first half.”
The Badgers had four offensive drives in the first half and went three-and-out each time.
DeWeese credited Chagrin Falls’ defense for winning at the line of scrimmage, shutting down the Badgers’ offense.
“They were playing tough up front,” he said. “Plugging holes and the linebackers were really flocking to the ball.”
The Tigers scored 10 unanswered points in the first half, as senior running back/defensive back Will Flannery broke away for a 50-yard touchdown run and the 5-foot-6 Ettinger booted a 29-yard field goal, giving Chagrin Falls a 10-6 lead at the half.
Berkshire overcame its slow start in the first half, striking quickly in the second half on a four-play, 47-yard drive highlighted by the 5-foot-9 Holland finding the end zone from 25 yards out, pushing the Badgers ahead 12-10 after the two-point conversion failed.
“We let them dictate the first half with their defense, and they took away some of the things that we were counting on but made some good adjustments. We have great coaches who made great adjustments, the kids rose up in the moment and were able to execute in the second half.”
DeWeese spoke highly of his team’s overall grit during the season, as Berkshire had once again rebounded from a challenging start to the season by only recording one victory in non-conference play and having a 1-3 record through the first four games before going on a three-game winning streak leading into the contest against the Tigers.
The Badgers will stay home and welcome CVC Valley Division foe Trinity to Great Lakes Cheese Stadium in Burton on Friday evening at 7 p.m.
