Chuckey-Doak Middle completed the three-peat on Monday night and avenged their earlier loss to Sullivan Central just two weeks ago with a 36-20 win in Lower Afton tonight to become Division II Area 1 Champions.
“Super proud of how our guys responded. Dropping a game to them two weeks ago and then responding the way we did tonight to go ahead and three-peat,” Chuckey-Doak coach Jacob Willett expressed.
For the twenty eighth graders on Chuckey-Doak’s team, they will never know what it feels like to not be champions. The eighth-grade group did what many have never done and won back-to-back-to-back championships in each postseason of their short tenures at the middle school.
Black Knights Coach Jacob Willett spoke about everything this group has accomplished while at Chuckey-Doak. “This eighth-grade bunch, man, they’ve worked their tails off. Just a fantastic group to coach. They’ve been a thorough pleasure to coach. Each and every one of them. It’s been a fun group, man. They’re the winningest group to ever come through the school. I mean, it’s hard to beat three-for-three.”
Not only did they avenge their loss from two weeks prior, but it’s the second year in-a-row that Chuckey-Doak was able to beat Sullivan Central for the Area Championship. They pulled off a low-scoring 16-8 victory last year.
Chuckey-Doak tried getting creative with an onside kick to start the game. The Cougars recovered it but weren’t able to use the short field to their advantage and turned the ball over on downs on the 16-yard line.
The Black Knights took control first and scored on their second offensive play with a 58-yard dash by Brody Myers.
Myers was as advertised on Monday and led the charge with plenty of big moments in his final game at the middle school level.
“We love running the quarterback. Obviously, we love our quarterback runs because it gives us better numbers in the box. So him being able to do that, and be physical, and be able to move a little bit, and make guys miss out in the open, and run through dudes for five yards when we need a physical five. He’s gonna be irreplaceable,” Coach Willett explained.
It took less than two minutes for Sullivan Central to answer with a five-yard rushing touchdown from Reeves Smith with a minute left in the first quarter.
The two-point try failed for both teams and the score was tied 6-6 after one quarter.
Chuckey-Doak had no problems answering as Zaiden Schacke ran through the tackles untouched from 12 yards out. Myers converted the two-point conversion and the Black Knights led 14-6 with 5:27 left in the half.
Sullivan Central responded again with less than two minutes remaining in the half. Skylar Nelson applied pressure and sacked the quarterback and backed the Cougars up to 2nd-&-17 on the 44-yard line, but Garrett Wagner found Reeves Smith again for a touchdown before the half. The two-point attempt failed.
Both teams went into the halftime break in a tightly contested 14-12 game. Neither team could gain an edge on their opponent in the first half, but one huge play to start the second half changed that. Zaiden Schacke took the opening kickoff back for an 89-yard touchdown to open up the third quarter and take Chuckey-Doak to a 22-12 lead just like that.
“Zaiden had a great game tonight. He had some big rushes. He had some big carries for us and he ran hard and ran physical,” Willett stated.
Sullivan Central stalled out on their opening drive of the second half and tried catching the Black Knights off guard with a fake punt pass play, but Deacon Seay blew it up and tackled the ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage.
Chuckey-Doak took advantage of that empty possession and scored once again with a 26-yard touchdown run from Brody Myers to extend their lead. The 8th grader shrugged off defenders and spun his way into the end zone to make it 30-12.
The Black Knight defense stepped up and came out aggressive after taking an 18-point lead and tackled Reeves Smith on an end around for a 12-yard loss. Smith was brought down behind the line of scrimmage again on the next play. Carder Chapman was credited with both TFL’s and was disruptive in the second half. The Cougars would convert 3rd-&-23 on the next play, but Skylar Nelson and Conley Estepp Woodby brought Garrett Wagner down for a sack on the next 3rd-down scenario. Nelson would break into the backfield for the second-straight play and force a turnover on downs with another sack.
“Huge game by our defensive line. We really challenged them two weeks ago. We felt like we got beat up front two weeks ago and we responded in a really big way tonight. Those guys handled that challenge that we put on them,” Coach Willett said.
Brody Myers broke off a big 21-yard gain and had tacklers draped over him on his way out of bounds, but a slew of penalties negated that play and backed them up to their own 35-yard line. But one play later, it wouldn’t matter. It only allowed Myers to rack up more stats with a 65-yard touchdown throw to Israel Collazl on second-and-37.
“Our guys are okay with being backed up because we know we can score in big chunks and we can gain yards in big chunks. So, when we get backed up it gives our receivers a chance to go make a play and Izzy had a big night for us. That kid’s gonna have a bright future,” Coach Willett explained.
Chuckey-Doak started running away with the game and led 36-12 with 1:30 left in the 3rd.
The Cougars scored one more time early in the fourth courtesy of Reeves Smith. It made the score 36-20.
Chuckey-Doak wasted a huge chunk of the clock by moving downfield and made it to the red zone, but failed to convert after hurting themselves with back-to-back false starts on 4th-&-1.
Sullivan Central started running some nifty trick plays and moved into Chuckey-Doak territory, but a game-ending interception by Tegen Hester allowed the Black Knights to run the best formation in football, the victory formation.
Chuckey-Doak’s season came to a close in the best way possible, with a win in the District II Area 1 Championship Game.
Chuckey-Doak Middle became back-to-back-to-back champs on Monday night by claiming the Division 2 Area 1 Championship with a 36-20 win over Sullivan Central. Hear about what huge plays and performances led to the victory when we caught up with Coach Jacob Willett afterwards. pic.twitter.com/Wa283eNmWv
— GreeneSportsZone (@GSportsZone) October 14, 2025
