Charleston Trojan’s homecoming game was wrecked by the Mount Zion Braves 42-10 victory at Trojan Hill on Friday night.
This 42-10 score was a score that would not be expected at halftime with Charleston leading 10-7 at that time.
Charleston completely dominated the second half of the game with 89 overall yards to Mount Zion’s eight.
However, the Trojan’s lack of depth caused the game to get away from them.
“We just ran out of bodies and bullets in the second half,” Charleston head coach Brian Halsey said. “Basically, today about the same 11 or 14 kids were on everything.”
These two-way players got exhausted by the second half. One out of their main group that was missing tonight was sophomore running back/defensive back Treylin Couch.
“We’re limited at running backs tonight,” Halsey said. “So, we didn’t have a lot of depth there, and they paved the way and did the little things we need to.”
The Trojans went to the ground game a lot.
Senior running backs Ben Coffey and Marcellx Boling combined for 28 carries, and junior Alex Matheny also had his fair share of carries in Couch’s absence.
In the passing game, senior quarterback Luke Bonnstetter had a high completion rate but only attempted 10 passes. He was eight of 10 attempts for 57 yards throughout the game.
Almost every time Bonesetter dropped back, he was under heavy pressure and got sacked a few times.
One of the Braves’ players who brought Bonesetter down in the backfield was the 4-star tight end junior JC Anderson who also plays defensive end.
Anderson was silent in the receiving game with zero receptions, but his presence was felt on the defensive side of the ball. Anderson also threw a touchdown pass, out of the wildcat formation, to senior wide receiver Brayden Trimble.
This would also kick off Mt. Zion’s dominance in the second half.
After the Braves forced a three and out, junior quarterback Keller Stocks threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Owen Sill on their first play with the ball back.
Then, the Trojans were set up in prime position after a failed on-side kick attempt by Mt. Zion. However, four plays later, Bonnstetter was picked off by Mt. Zion junior Jacob Harvey.
Harvey would then put his team into prime position on a 38-yard reception the next play. Trimble would score on a 19-yard reception soon after.
The Trojans would show some life after this, putting together their first and only good drive of the second half. However, it would fall short on a failed fourth down conversion.
The Braves would then march down field again, and Sill would catch his second touchdown of the game.
Bonnstetter would not go out for the next drive; it looked like an injury suffered at the end of the last drive. It was sophomore quarterback Draysean Eich that had to step up.
Eich did well with his legs racking up 13 yards on five carries but did not throw the ball once in the two drives he got.
Soon after Eich’s first drive, Mt. Zion would make the final score on a 55-yard pass to junior Jacob Harvey, who ran it 50 yards after the catch.
Charleston will be back at Trojan Hill to take on the Taylorville Tornadoes next Friday. Kickoff for that game is set for 7 p.m. and the Trojans must win out to qualify for the playoffs.
Bryce Parker can be reached at at 581-2812 or at baparker2@eiu.edu.
