Chartiers-Houston’s run ends with loss to Laurel
By Joe Smeltzer
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@observer-reporter.com
IMPERIAL – A successful season by every measure came to an end for Chartiers-Houston on Friday night at West Allegheny High School with a 40-21 loss to Laurel in the WPIAL Class A football quarterfinals.
Laurel opened the scoring on its second possession, and it was the Kolton Carlson show. A 45-yard reception and a 5-yard run by the tailback put Laurel in front.
Early in the second quarter, Laurel piled on with a 24-yard TD run by Jack Miles.
Chartiers-Houston seemed rattled early on, taking three false-start penalties on its first drive and a holding penalty on the second.
Chartiers-Houston had the ball in the Laurel red zone, but Tony Geiwitz picked off Aaron Walsh to thwart the threat.
The Bucs got the ball to start the second half, and were stuffed on fourth down, setting Laurel up near the red zone.
Even when Chartiers-Houston scored to make it 21-7, Laurel bounced right back to push the lead back to three scores. C-H scored another one on Brody McCrerey’s second TD reception, but once again, Laurel followed up with another score, this one being Miles’ second TD run of the night.
Despite the loss, coach Dan Lis knows that Char-Houston, which was picked by some to finish last in its conference, had a successful year.
“I would say that outside, there weren’t expectations for this team, but inside, there always were,” Lis said. “Did they surprise people probably a little quicker than most? Yeah, but that’s what happens when you get in the weight room and you work out and you show up consistently and in the offseason, that’s what happens. So we’re just going to build on that. The seniors did a great job of showing the underclassmen what to do and how to do it right.”
Chartiers-Houston is graduating 11 seniors, but seven sophomores contributed heavily to their success, so it is a program on the rise.
Laurel will take on Matt Sieg and Fort Cherry with a trip to the WPIAL title game on the line next week in the semifinals.