Yellow Jackets clinch playoff spot in win over Carmi
<span>A quick start led to a better finish on Friday, as Chester shut out Carmi-White County, 43-0, on Homecoming to clinch a spot in the postseason.</span>
<span>Jordan Berner threw his first touchdown pass in three years, Luke Hartman returned an interception 52 yards for a score and Chester's defense held the Bulldogs to just 78 yards of offense and three first downs.</span>
<span>"The opponents are the opponents," said Chester coach Jeremy Blechle. "We can't pick and choose who we play, but if you look at Carmi, they're 1-4 and have played quite a tough schedule.</span>
<span>"They've played a lot of those big teams in the Black Diamond, the Eldorados, the Fairfields, the Johnston Cities, they played them really close. Johnston City was a game until the middle of the fourth quarter."</span>
<span>The scoring started early, as Chris Lang ran for a 19-yard touchdown with 6:43 left in the first quarter and Hartman picked off a Jake Simon pass along the left sideline and ran it back to the house just a minute and 15 seconds later.</span>
<span>"In practice, the defensive squads, we always tell them that defensive touchdowns mean steak dinners," Blechle said. "That's the first thing he said coming off the sideline was 'steak dinner.'</span>
<span>"It's neat that, not just Hartman cutting it back up against the grain across the middle of the field, but all you saw was (Jake) Golding blocking for him, Lang blocking for him, (Joe) Stahlheber blocking for him. The best part about this team is they are not selfish whatsoever."</span>
<span>Chester's third touchdown was a great play call. With the Yellow Jackets set up in the Berner-centric Wildcat formation on the Carmi 15, the Bulldogs stacked the deck to stop the SIU-bound senior.</span>
<span>What the Carmi defense didn't see, however, was Chester quarterback Curt Meyer sneaking into the far left corner of the end zone. Berner's ensuing pass was handled easily by the wide-open Meyer, who did not have a Carmi player within 30 yards of him.</span>
<span>Meyer later connected with Savion Smith for a 34-yard touchdown pass, and Demontae Martin and Berner tackled Carmi's Joseph Rulo in the end zone for a safety to give Chester a 30-0 lead at halftime.</span>
<span>The Yellow Jackets (6-0, 6-0 BDC) added touchdowns from Martin and Blake Eggemeyer in the second half to put the game out of reach and clinch their fourth straight trip to the postseason and seventh in the past eight years.</span>
<span>"The questions to me, I hate that," Blechle said, when asked what that means to him as a first-year head coach. "I'm not a selfish person or a cocky guy. I don't take any credit for it.</span>
<span>"I'm the lucky guy who, once in awhile, gets to call some defensive adjustments up and put my name atop the letterhead."</span>
<span>Up next for Chester is a road game to Christopher-Zeigler-Royalton, which lost to Johnston City, 46-12, on Saturday.</span>
<span>The Bearcats (0-6, 0-5 BDC) are one of the conference's two winless teams along with Hamilton County.</span>
<span>"To get to the playoffs, they're not at all satisfied and they're just getting more hungry and more hungry," Blechle said of his players. "Now they know they're in, but now they're working for a position and they want to be that No. 1 seed.</span>
<span>"They know that opportunity is there to be the No. 1 seed in the south and that's the new goal that they set."</span>
<span>Kickoff against C-Z-R is set for noon next Saturday.</span>