PEKIN — It was Senior Night at Eastern and the last game of the regular season for Charlestown and the Musketeers before both turn their attention to the state tournament.

Charlestown, which came ranked second in Class 3A, wanted to get through the game without injuries, and Eastern wanted to do anything they could to slow down the top-ranked offense (58 points per game) in Unfortunately for Eastern, it got out of hand early and the Pirates had their way, winning 62-7. The win gave the Pirates a perfect regular season and the outright Mid-Southern Conference championship.

The Pirates, who have had their way with every opponent this year, planned on continuing to work on things to get better before the Class 3A Sectional 23 tournament, which begins at home against Mitchell  next week.

“Yeah, the season has gone by quickly, not ready for it to end, and we are hoping we can make a deep run into the playoffs” Charlestown coach Hawkins said.

In preparation for the state tournament, the Pirates came out and ran new formations and passed more, instead of running the ball as much as they’re used to doing in the first half.

“We wanted to work on our passing and getting new looks, said Hawkins.

They did just that scoring touchdowns on all six possessions in the first half.

The first quarter decided this one early as the Pirates scored four touchdowns.

Tyler Odle started the scoring when he caught an 18-yard pass from Aaron Daniel. It didn’t take long before Daniel completed another touchdown on an 11-yard pass to Cody Donahue. After a punt by Eastern, Seth McCutchen scored on the ground from 23 yards out. The quarter would end when on the first play from scrimmage of the Pirates’ next drive when Wesley Sexton broke open for a 44-yard pass from Daniel.

In the second quarter, Daniel would score from two yards out on his only carry of the night. He later completed a 5-yard scoring pass to Jared Gordon.

The first team offense for the Pirates came for the first possession of the second half and that ended their night as Daniel completed a 20-yard touchdown pass to Gage Brafford to break a Charlestown record for the most touchdowns passes in a game with five.

Junior Darren Taylor took over for Daniel at quarterback, and on his first play from scrimmage, scored on an 88-yard touchdown run.

After another punt — Eastern’s seventh of the night — Charlestown senior Ryan Wilkerson scored the Pirates’ final touchdown of the night on a six-yard run.

Eastern got on the scoreboard at the start of the fourth quarter when sophomore quarterback Austin Roberts would connect with Jordan Eberle on a 30-yard scoring pass.

In all, nine different players for Charlestown scored touchdowns, eight of them being from seniors. It was exactly the way the Pirates wanted to end the year with everyone healthy and their offense continuing to improve.

“I feel pretty good,” Hawkins said. “We thought we had a good team, but to get to 9-0 is a great feeling.”     



CHARLESTOWN 62, EASTERN 7

First Quarter

    C — Tyler Odle 19 pass from Aaron Daniel (Daniel kick), 9:09.

    C — Cody Donahue 11 pass from Daniel (Daniel kick), 6:24.

    C — Seth McCutchen 23 run (Daniel kick), 3:10.

    C — Wesley Sexton 44 pass from Daniel (Daniel kick), 2:04.

Second Quarter

    C — Daniel 2 run (kick failed), 5:36.

    C — Jared Gordon 7 pass from Daniel (Daniel kick), 2:45.

Third Quarter

    C — Gage Brafford 20 pass from Daniel (Chris Shanks kick), 11:20.

    C — Darren Taylor 88 run (Shanks kick), 6:54.

    C — Ryan Wilkerson 8 run (Shanks kick), 3:05.

Fourth Quarter

    E — Jordan Eberle 30 pass from Austin Roberts  (Jordan Omerson kick), 11:03.

Statistics

Rushing

    Charlestown (18-256): McCutchen 8-89, Taylor 1-88, Cameron Hopson 3-39, Wilkerson 2-36, Daniel 1-2, Hunter Stewart 1-1, Christian Bates 2-1; Eastern (26-35): Kaleb Nicholson 3-23, Mike Hall 1-16, Luke Terry 7-9, Eberle 3-0, Carson Newcomb 1-(minus 2), Roberts 11-(minus 11).

Passing

    Charlestown (12-14-230-0): Daniel 12-14-230-0; Eastern (15-30-170-1): Roberts 15-30-170-1.

Receiving

    Charlestown: Odle 5-117, Brafford 3-45, Sexton 1-44, Donahue 2-17, Gordon 1-7; Eastern: Eberle 4-72, Nicholson 3-54, Brian Arnold 6-39, Scott Ames 2-5.