Chartiers-Houston wins on TD pass as time expires
CORAOPOLIS – With a Class A playoff berth on the line, Chartiers-Houston trailed Cornell 26-7 at halftime Friday night.
That kind of deficit did nothing to deter the Bucs.
Chartiers-Houston shut out Cornell in the second half mounted an amazing comeback that culminated with a 19-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Walsh to Brody McCrerey as time expired, giving the Bucs a thrilling 27-26 victory in the Black Hills Conference.
The win clinches a postseason spot for C-H (4-2, 6-3). Cornell (2-3, 5-4) can still get into the postseason as a wild card.
Chartiers-Houston won the game by driving 72 yards in the final 1:14 without the benefit of a timeout.
On the game-winning play, Walsh avoided a tackler in the backfield and rolled to his left before lofting a pass to the back of the end zone that McCrerey hauled in as time expired.
C-H began its comeback in the third quarter when Dominic Andreolli scored on a one-yard plunge that cut Cornell’s lead to 26-14.
Another Andreolli TD run, this one of two yards, pulled C-H to within 26-21 with 8:15 left.
Cornell built its lead behind two TD passes from Mark Stuckey Jr. to Isaiah Dawson, and touchdown runs by Khylil Johnson and Latae Littlejohn. The Raiders failed to score on the conversions three times.
McCrerey’s game-winning TD was his second score of the game. He caught a 16-yard scoring pass in the second quarter.
Wlash completed 14 of 26 passes for 205 yards.