Controversial touchdown sinks Ringgold
BRIDGEVILLE – In Chartiers Valley’s view, it was a great, legal play.
In Ringgold’s view, it was a robbery.
“Listen, I don’t put it on the refs,” Ringgold coach Robert Heller said afterward ,”but I mean, I thought we got hosed. … He was clearly down. He was clearly down on that touchdown.”
“No,” Chartiers Valley coach Steve Spence said afterward, “his knee did not hit.”
Here’s what happened:
With the game tied at 20-20 in the fourth quarter, Chartiers Valley called a designed quarterback run for Owen Weagraff.
Weagraff ran for some yards, and what he did next, well, that depends on who you ask.
If you ask Spence, Weagraff either handed it to running back Zach Efthimiades or Efthimiades grabbed it from him, then ran 55 yards for a touchdown.
If you ask Efthimiades, he grabbed it from the quarterback as he was going down.
In Heller’s view, Weagraff was down and tossed the ball to Efthimiades.
Had this been a college or NFL game, there would have been a replay review.
But the call on the field, which was no call, was the final call, and there was nothing Ringgold could do.
Fans who are really curious can find the clip somewhere on social media and judge for themselves.
But in any case, Chartiers Valley got the win, 27-20, on the disputed touchdown Friday night.
A lot of people expected Ringgold to win, but Weagraff didn’t mind.
“We don’t listen to the outside sources,” he said. “They can say they won, but I know, I trust my boys inside that locker room. I trust my eleven, any day, and we showed it.”
Ringgold (3-1, 5-4) drew first blood on its first possession, which ended on a 4-yard touchdown run by Christian Lowther. CV (3-1, 5-4) answered on its first drive with a 3-yard run by Zach Effhimiades. Ringgold retook the lead on its next possession with a 23-yard field goal by Bill Cameron. Nobody scored for the rest of the first quarter and most of the second. Then, with 16 seconds left in the first half, Weagraff hit receiver Braylen Bogats for a 29-yard TD pass to give CV its first lead of the night, which it held into the second half.
Ringgold tied it early in the fourth quarter with a short field goal. On the next possession, CV struck again, on a 2-yard TD pass from Weagraff to Chace Glover.
But Ringgold kept fighting, tying it up on a 24-yard pass from Dennis Hawkins III to Demetri Love.
After CV’s crazy and controversial touchdown, the defense had to overcome two personal foul penalties to hold off Ringgold’s last hope.
“All I can really say is I’m proud of our kids,” Heller said. “I’m proud. They didn’t … they didn’t need to go out like that.”
Chartiers Valley is now tied with Ringgold for second place in the Class 4A Big Six Conference. It ends the regular season next Friday against Albert Gallatan at home. Ringgold looks to bounce back against conference leader South Fayette.
So how does Chartiers Valley build off this?
“Same as it was for the first nine weeks,” Spence said. “We’re going to prepare as hard as we can, stay focused on one day at a time, which has been our approach all year, and you know, prepare as hard as we can and come out Friday night and play as hard as we can. And these guys, they deserve to finish the season the right way. They deserve a chance at the playoffs. They’ve been through a grueling schedule, and they’ve done nothing but fight and get better and better.”